Minkkinen Arno Rafael

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About

Minkkinen was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1945 and emigrated to the United States in 1951. He graduated from Wagner College with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and began making self-portraits in 1971 while working as a copywriter in advertising on Madison Avenue in New York city. He later studied under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Rhode island school of design and received a master of fine arts degree in photography in 1974.

Minkkinen was awarded the order of the Finnish lion first class by the Finnish government in 1992, and received the Finnish State art prize in photography in 2006.

For the past forty years, Minkkinen has been engaged in teaching, curating, and writing, while continuing to devote his photographic powers exclusively to creating self-portraits. Organically entering the space, whether it is an urban or natural landscape, he creates works that at first glance may seem like installation or computer fiction. His interaction with nature is akin to mimicry – Minkkinen becomes a natural element of the environment, merges with it, continuing and completing perspectives and lines. Finland, Norway and Sweden, France, Italy, China and the American West are his favourite places to “hunt” for shots.

Minkkinen is a Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and also teaches at the Aalto University of art and design in Helsinki. Earlier in his teaching career he worked as an assistant Professor at MIT, visiting artist at Philadelphia College of art (now University of the Arts (Philadelphia)), the École d’arts Appliqués in Vevey, Switzerland, and as a lecturer in the Media College of Maine in Rockport, Maine.

Selected Exhibitions

1974
Helsinki, Finland: Photographic Museum of Finland.

1976
Stockholm: Fotografiska Museet at Moderna Museet.

1984
Helsinki: Photographic Museum of Finland.

Reims, France: Maison de la Culture.

1986
Pori, Finland: Pori Art Museum. Mattomies.

1991
Barcelona: Centre d’Art Santa Monica. Primordial Image.

Nice: Museum of Modern Art. Retrospective: Finnice.

1992
Prague: Prague House of Photography.

1995
Pori, Finland: Pori Art Museum. Retrospective. Waterline.

Lausanne, Switzerland: Musée de l’Élysée;

Caen, France: L’Artothèque de Caen and Musée de Normandie.

1996
Waterline. Sundsvall, Sweden: Sundsvall Museet.

Waterline. Odense, Denmark: Museet for Fotokunst, Brandts Klædefabrik.

Waterline. Charleroi, Belgium: Musée de la Photographie.

1998
Paris: Mois de la Photo; Helsinki: Gallen Kallela Museum.

2000
Tokyo, Japan: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Retrospective in the exhibition: The Body as an Expression of the Subconscious.

2005
Lincoln, Massachusetts: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park.SAGA: The Journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Thirty-Five Years of Photographs.

2006
SAGA: The Journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Thirty-Five Years of Photographs. Bucharest Museum of Contemporary Art.

SAGA: The Journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Thirty-Five Years of Photographs. Bratislava, Slovakia: Palace of Art, Month of Photography.

2007
Salo, Finland: Salo Art Museum. SAGA: The Journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Thirty-Five Years of Photographs.

2008
Correggio / Reggio Emilia, Italy: Palazzo Principi.

2009
Lincoln, Nebraska: Sheldon Art Museum (Evolving Eden: Three Photographic Perspectives with Edward Burtnysky + Hans Ejkelboom).

San Francisco: Cavallo Point, Golden Gate National Park at Fort Baker

Lahti, Finland: Lahti Art Museum. HOMEWORK: The Finnish Photographs, 1973 to 2008.

2010
Shanghai: Finnish Pavilion. Shanghai World’s Fair.

2011
Caen, France: Arno Rafael Minkkinen. Les Boréales de Normandy. Paris Metro. Finnish National Tourist Board.

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