Eija-Liisa Ahtila

Eija-Liisa Ahtila was born in Hämeenlinna, Finland in 1959. She studied filmmaking at the London College of Printing, the University of Helsinki and at the University of California in Los Angeles. Eija-Liisa Ahtila has long been considered a master of the cinematic installation form. Her work is conceptually organized around the construction of image, language, narrative, and space, and she has often probed individual identity and the boundaries of the subject in relation to the external world. Using the visual language of cinema, Ahtila presents large-scale installations with split-screen projections on multiple panels. These viewing conditions, with their simultaneously charged vantage points, break the idea of cinematic perspective and construct an experience of several co-existing times and spaces for being. 

Ahtila's work has been widely exhibited, most recently at the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, US (2022); the National Gallery of Art, Vilnus, Lithuania (2021); Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany (2019); the M Museum, Leuven, Belgium and the Serlachius Museum Gösta, Mänttä, Finland (both 2018). She has also had solo exhibitions at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia (2017); Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (2016); Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York and Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (both 2015); the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2014); Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland (2013); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico (2012); Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (2011); Parasol Unit, London, UK (2010) amongst many others. 

Eija-Liisa Ahtila has been honored with numerous prizes over the past two decades that include, most recently, becoming Commander,First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, (2020); Academician of Arts in Finland (2009); The Prince Eugen Medal for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, Sweden (2009); Artes Mundi, Wales International Visual Arts Prize, Cardiff, Wales (2006).