Essi Maaria Orpana

Essi Maaria Orpana is a visual artist currently based in Helsinki, Finland. At the moment Orpana works with photography and video but has recently started adopting also more installation-driven approach to her artistic work. Her themes deal with body and presence interrelated to space, identity and passing of time. Characteristic to Orpana's work is to perform for or with a camera. Her approach to artistic work is personal, often with an uncanny twist.

Orpana holds a BA from visual arts from Turku University of Applied Science Art Academy and is currently finishing her MA studies in photography at Aalto University, School of Arts. Orpana has also studied fine arts at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain.

Lately her works have been exhibited in a solo show in Turku Kunstahalle, Turku, Finland (2020), curated group show in Latvian Museum of photography, Riga, Latvia (2019) and in Gallery Lapinlahti in Helsinki, Finland (2018), solo exhibition in Ostrabothnian Photography Centre, Lapua, Finland (2017) and her photographs have been published in a book called A book of lies : väritettyjä totuuksia, (valokuvauksen opiskelijat ry, Aalto Books & Musta taide. Helsinki, 2013).