Henry Grahn Hermunen

Henry Grahn Hermunen (born 1963, Helsinki) is a contemporary artist living in Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland.

Biography Hermunen studied at The Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki Finland between 1996–2001 and received a Master of Fine Arts. During 1998–2000, he was a scholar at The Royal Institute of Art – Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm Sweden.

Since the late 1990s, he has created large-scale installations consisting of techniques including; photography, drawings, sculpture, painting, light, and sound. Taking a poetic approach to environmental ecology, he has undertaken socio-political projects nationally and internationally.

"The freedom when creating art, gives chances and excellent possibilities for broader study and discoveries also in sciences such as philosophy, mathematics and physics." Hermunen stated in a text directed to researchers.

In an interview "Art about the beauty in Life", with Ny Tid (Finland) news magazine Henry Grahn Hermunen said: We live in the middle of a worldwide renaissance with global education through the internet. But for example, people work too much to have time to consume what they have. Medias role is crucial - they can obviously make people shrink. Joseph Pulitzer who founded the Pulitzer Prize and who sometimes acted dubiously himself, said a hundred years ago ‘that a cynical, mercenary and demagogic press will eventually create a people who are just as shabby as themselves‘".

Henry Grahn Hermunen has exhibited at art venues including Art Forum Berlin, ARCO Madrid and at The Whitechapel Gallery London, as well showing solo exhibitions at Marina Gisich Gallery and at The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Swedish newspaper SvD Svenska Dagbladet wrote: Grahn Hermunen is the first North European Contemporary Artist invited to show his exhibition "Water table in a renaissance garden" in one of the halls of The Hermitage, a Museum considered to be one of the world's foremost Institutions.

Visiting the exhibition, Marina Chekmareva at the State Hermitage Museum said in an interview to Alexey Sukhorukov from Russia-Culture National TV, "We have been carrying out these combined exhibition - masterclass projects for three years by the most advanced artists not only from Russia but also from abroad."

During the exhibition Right Here Right Now at The Helsinki City Art Museum Gallery - Kluuvi, The Finnish artist Erkka N. amazed observed: "It is like entering right into a big abstract painting". Grahn Hermunen reflected: “Of course, this may be satisfactory enough, the unknown, beautifully abstract, but there was and still is a binary, minimalistic precise, and limitless mathematical language there, which I have developed over many years”.

Henry Grahn Hermunen was invited by Head Curator Larisa Skobkina Golybeva to take part and also curate the North European section to the Celebratory 10th International Dialogues Biennale in Manege -The Main Exhibition Hall of St. Petersburg, Russia 2011.

The artist is represented by Cath Alexandrine Danneskiold-Samsøe Gallery in Denmark, Marina Gisich Gallery in Russia, and Karin Weber-Galerie Mitte in Germany.