Anna Ruth (b. 1975) has lived in Finland since 2002. Born on the east coast of Turtle Island between two moves, and raised on the west coast, in the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Salish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (colonial name: Vancouver). She comes from a background of lost, displaced, refugee, settler and immigrant ancestry from north western, and south eastern Europe (?).
She attended the Emily Carr College of Art and Design (1993-1995), the Winchester School of Art(1995), graduated from the École des beaux-arts de Quimper (1995-1998) and was a resident in the postgraduate programme at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon(2003-2004).
Since 2003, Anna Ruth has been involved in inciting community interest in contemporary art. She has organized and curated thematic exhibitions in unconventional exhibition spaces such as barns, home apartments and vacant commercial spaces. In 2009, she co-founded the nomadic curatorial platform for visual arts: Äkkigalleria with Juho Jäppinen. This platform does not reside in one fixed location, but regular exhibitions and events are organized in spur of the moment events in various, temporarily vacant spaces.
In collaboration with institutions, Anna Ruth was the guest curator for the XXV Mäntän kuvataideviikot, the 31st Onoma summer exhibition Utopia, and has organized exhibitions for the Jyväskylä Art Museum.
Anna Ruth, along with Juho Jäppinen, has received 4 awards for exceptional promotion of the arts in Central Finland. (TAIKE cultural award 2011, Finnish Cultural Award for Central Finland 2014, Mid Nordic Cultural Award 2015 and the 2016 Cultural Award for the City of Jyväskylä.)
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Anna Ruth is compelled by place specific culture/identity. Her artwork is conceptual, minimalist and poetic, but realistic forms and figures are also frequently represented. She draws and paints on various surfaces, including walls and repurposed material. Line and two-dimensional texture are essential elements in her drawings and plants are sometimes also directly incorporated into her work. Colour is used carefully and an important part of her surface is usually left untouched. Reoccurring themes deal with traces, territory, maps, fences and other human designs that are used to define belonging.
Anna Ruth also produces public artwork such as her Sensory Maps for the City of Vancouver as one of the six Mapping and Marking projects presented during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, or the 22 metre digital window painting for the first apartment building in the new Kangas residential area in Jyväskylä, Finland (2016). In 2018 she was commissioned to produce integrated artwork for the doors and patient rooms of one wing in the new regional hospital NOVA, Jyväskylä. Other commissions include the three part altarpiece for the Kipinä Chapel in Jyväskylä and murals in various children's health centres in Jyväskylä, Finland.
She attended the Emily Carr College of Art and Design (1993-1995), the Winchester School of Art(1995), graduated from the École des beaux-arts de Quimper (1995-1998) and was a resident in the postgraduate programme at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon(2003-2004).
Since 2003, Anna Ruth has been involved in inciting community interest in contemporary art. She has organized and curated thematic exhibitions in unconventional exhibition spaces such as barns, home apartments and vacant commercial spaces. In 2009, she co-founded the nomadic curatorial platform for visual arts: Äkkigalleria with Juho Jäppinen. This platform does not reside in one fixed location, but regular exhibitions and events are organized in spur of the moment events in various, temporarily vacant spaces.
In collaboration with institutions, Anna Ruth was the guest curator for the XXV Mäntän kuvataideviikot, the 31st Onoma summer exhibition Utopia, and has organized exhibitions for the Jyväskylä Art Museum.
Anna Ruth, along with Juho Jäppinen, has received 4 awards for exceptional promotion of the arts in Central Finland. (TAIKE cultural award 2011, Finnish Cultural Award for Central Finland 2014, Mid Nordic Cultural Award 2015 and the 2016 Cultural Award for the City of Jyväskylä.)
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Anna Ruth is compelled by place specific culture/identity. Her artwork is conceptual, minimalist and poetic, but realistic forms and figures are also frequently represented. She draws and paints on various surfaces, including walls and repurposed material. Line and two-dimensional texture are essential elements in her drawings and plants are sometimes also directly incorporated into her work. Colour is used carefully and an important part of her surface is usually left untouched. Reoccurring themes deal with traces, territory, maps, fences and other human designs that are used to define belonging.
Anna Ruth also produces public artwork such as her Sensory Maps for the City of Vancouver as one of the six Mapping and Marking projects presented during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, or the 22 metre digital window painting for the first apartment building in the new Kangas residential area in Jyväskylä, Finland (2016). In 2018 she was commissioned to produce integrated artwork for the doors and patient rooms of one wing in the new regional hospital NOVA, Jyväskylä. Other commissions include the three part altarpiece for the Kipinä Chapel in Jyväskylä and murals in various children's health centres in Jyväskylä, Finland.
