RITVA KOVALAINEN,
Artist photographer
Born 1959, Finland
E-mail: ritva.kovalainen@sci.fi,
STUDIES
1990 Master of Arts, University of Art and Design, Helsinki
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2005 - Land of Beautiful Horses, Salo Art Museum, Finland, photograhic gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki,
Side-gallery, New Castle, GB, WB-photgraphic Centre, Kuopio
2001- When a Child a Child Was, Gallery Peri Turku, Hämeenlinna Castle, Strand Gallery Oulu
1999 Once in a Lifetime, Zebra Gallery, Karis
1999 Singing Tree, Rotterdam, Netherlands, and around Belgium
1998 Petites Series, Finnish Institute in Paris, France
1996 Pictures from Tanzania, Gallery Peri, Turku
1993 Photographs, Gallery Peri Turku, Fotografisk galleri Copenhagen Denmark
1992-1993 Sticks, Fotofest happening, Estonia and Finland
1991 KJIK, Laterna Magica, Helsinki
1990 The Children, photographs of children commissioned by the City of Kirkkonummi
1990-1991 Photographs, Soardi Gallery Nice France, Hippolyte Gallery Helsinki, Strand Gallery Oulu
1984 No Man's Land, Hippolyte Gallery Helsinki, Strand Gallery Oulu, Kajaani Art Museum
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009 Tree People, Awagami Paper Factory Gallery, Tokushima, Japan
2009 Tree People, Galérie Domu fotografie do Zemplínskeho múzea v Michalovciach Slovakia
2008 Tree Peopl, House of Photography, Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia
2008 Stromy a lidé, House of Art, Opava and Bartolomeus Church Gallery, Czech Republic, R.K & S.S
2008 Stromy a ludia, KrajskÈ m˙zeum v Presov and StredoslovenskÈ m˙zeum, Bansk· Bystrica, Slovakia
Ritva Kovalainen & Sanni Seppo
2007-2008 Face to face with the Landscape, The Finnish Stone Center, Juuka, Finland
2007 My country! Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki. Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Finland
2006 Rangebiete, Joakim Eskildsen, Ritva Kovalainen, Esko Männikkö and Pekka Turunen
in Kulturbahnhof Eller, Düsseldorf, Germany
2006 SISU, Galerie 4, Cheb, Czech Republic
2006 Foto Finlandia, Sanoma House, Helsinki and Victor Barsokevitch –gallery, Kuopio Finland
2005 Tree People, Ritva Kovalainen and Sanni Seppo Länsmuseet Västernorrland, Härnosand,
and Skosmuseet, Lycksele, Sverige
2005 Von Blaupause bis Edeldruck, Kutur Bahnhof Eller, D¸sseldorf, Saksa,
2005 Breakfast on the Quay, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland
2004 The Eyes of a Woman, Photofesta Maputo, Mosambik
2004 Concerning the commonplace, Turku Art Museun, Finland
2004-2005 Facing East, Impressions Gallery, York, Art Institute at Bournemouth - Gallery, England, and Dick
institute, Killmarnock, Scotland
2003-2004 Both Sides, Otso-gallery, Espoo, CAP-house, Kobe, Japan
2003 Dimensio Nordico, Tolosa Art Museum, Spain
2003 Ethics of Ecology, Frombork and Puoltsuk, Poland
2002 Environments, Mantta Art Festival,
1999 Long Live Kalevala!, Gallen-Kallela Museum, Espoo and Nordic House in Reykjavik Iceland
1998–1999 UNDER/EXPOSE, Stockholm Metro, Sweden
1997-2001 Puiden kansa (Tree People) Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Art Museum of South Karelia, Seinäjoki Art
Hall, Finnish Forest Museum, Kajaani Art Museum, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Kuopio Cultural History
Museum, Finland.
1998 Nordisk Kunstnerisk, Fotografi Gallerie NK, Lillehammer, Norway
1997 Prints, Ancient & Modern gallery, with Pentti Sammallahti and Kristoffer Albrecht, Michigan, USA
1997 Hello Forest, Kuopio Art Museum
1996 Helsinki-St Petersburg Exhibition of Young Artists, St Petersburg, Russia
1994 Three Finnish Photographers, Museum of Photographic Art in Tallinn, Estonia
1993 Una Luce dal Nord, Acquario Romano, Italy, Corporacion Cultural de la Condes, Santiago de Chile,Chile
1992 Decennium, around Europe and South America
1992 Making Visible, Ritva Kovalainen and Ipi K‰rki, Artina Gallery Helsinki
1992 Finnice, Kerava Art Museum
1991 Exhibition of Artist books, Diplo Florence, Italy
1991 Kodak Award, Arles France and around Europe
1991 M’ars EXIT, Mikkeli Art Museum
1991 Body of Nature, Strand Gallery Oulu, Norbottens Museum Luleo Sweden and Fotogallery Lund, Sweden
1991 Fotofinlandia, Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki
1988 Where? Kunsthalle Helsinki
PUBLICATIONS AND MULTIMEDIA ARTWORKS
2007 End of the Rainbow, documentary shortfilm, Ritva Kovalainen & Sanni Seppo
2006 Tree People / Das Wolk Der Bäume, new editions by R.Kovalainen and S.Seppo
2005 Talande Träd a photographic book about trees in Kimito
2005 Land of Beautiful Horses a photographic book, Like, Helsinki
2001 When a Child a Child Was a photographic book (Carbon Sink Partnership)
2000 Tree People -multivision, Ritva Kovalainen & Sanni Seppo, Production of Helsinki Cultural Capital
Foundation, Finnish Museum of Photography
2000 Searching for the Forest (Metsää etsimässä) multimedia artwork, Ritva Kovalainen & Sanni Seppo,
2000 Sagalund – min kostsamma leksak a photographic book of Sagalund Museum, Kimito (Li Näse, Ritva
Kovalainen & Pekka Turunen)
1997 (1998)Tree People-book, by Ritva Kovalainen and Sanni Seppo (Pohjoinen and Carbon Sink Partnership)
1992 Sticks portfolio (Musta Taide)
1991(1992) KJIK portfolio (Opus)
1990 Nameless a photographic book (Opus)
1986 The Earth Holds Them All portfolio of Canadian Indians
1986 One Night Stop video for Commercial TV in Finland/Drama (Pekka Turunen)
COLLECTIONS
Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki
Collections of the State of Finland
Collections of the Parliament of Finland
Wäinö Aaltonen Art Museum
Espoo Art Museum
Collections of Kodak
Collection of Photographs of the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark
Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark
Kuopio Art Museum
Finnish Forest Museum, Punkaharju
PUBLIC WORKS
2007 Birches, ITE- medical Center (R. Kovalainen and S. Seppo)
2005 Caught in a forest-cover, Metsätalo, University of Helsinki (R. Kovalainen)
2001 Tree of Happiness, Relief in Metsätalo, University of Helsinki (R. Kovalainen and S. Seppo)
2004 Cabines on trees, Joensuu Training School (R. Kovalainen and S. Seppo)
MEMBERSHIPS
Member of the Finnish Union of Artist Photographers
PRIZES
Environmental Action Award, 2006
Suomi (Finland) Prize, Finnish state award for artists, 1997
The Most Beautiful Book of the Year Award, 1997 (Tree People)
Kodak Award Finland 1991
