Sanni Pyhänniska is an artist and printmaker working in printmaking, drawing and textiles, based between Finland and UK. Alongside her artistic practice she also works as an illustrator, event coordinator in the arts sector and a creative facilitator.

Originally from Finland, she studied Illustration at Falmouth University, Cornwall (2017-2020) and worked as a studio member at Spike Print Studio in Bristol from 2022 until 2025.

Influenced by the prominent Finnish textile artists she grew up admiring, her work is intuitive and process-led exploring texture, bold colour, and experimentative mark making.

Finding inspiration from personal memories, feeling, and conversation, her work captures moments of connection between people, environments and oneself. Where her imagery emerges from lived experiences and a subjective point of view, the figures in her work are women who are not tied to one time or place. Natural landscapes serve as her setting and are often depicted as an extension of the figure, or vice versa. Beyond that, natural elements function as a representation of her women’s inner worlds and the emotional terrain they navigate. Intentionally leaving space for the tricks our memory, subjectivity and sentimentality can play on us, her practice teases slightly magical, coloured in versions of her stories out of a blurry place between real and imagined.

Solo exhibitions:

Untitled. Harts Bakery, Bristol, UK. May 2024.

Salad Days. Hours, Bristol, UK. March 2024.

Vino. The Pump House, Bristol, UK. April 2023.

Curations:

Women by Women.3. Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, UK. March 2026.

Spike Print Studio for Print International 2025. Ty Pawb, Wrexham, UK. December 2025.

30×30. Spike Print Studio, Bristol, UK. May 2025.

Women by Women.2. Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, UK. March 2025.

Women by Women. That Art Gallery, Bristol, UK. March 2024.

Select group exhibitions:

Print International 2025. Ty Pawb, Wrexham, UK. December 2025.

The Christmas Collection. The Stradling Collection, Bristol, UK. December 2025.

Spike Open Studios. Spike Print Studio, Bristol, UK. May 2025.

The Sight of Music. Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, UK. April 2025.

Print, Press & Roll. Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, UK. February 2025.

The Christmas Collection. The Stradling Collection, Bristol, UK. December 2024.

Present Makers 2024. Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton,UK. Decemebr 2024.

Spring – Autumn 2024. North Street Gallery, Bristol, UK. October 2024.

Umber. Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, UK. 2024.

Sprung 24. Prema Arts Centre, Uley, UK. July 2024.

The Personal Shrine Project. Fringe Arts Bath, Bath, UK. June 2024.

Spike Open Studios. Spike Print Studio, Bristol, UK. May 2024.

Winter Exhibition. Bocabar, Bristol, UK. January 2024.

Precious Postcards 23. That Art Gallery, Bristol, UK. December 2023.

Spike Open Studios. Spike Print Studio, Bristol, UK. April 2023.

Mouthing Off Magazine Art Exhibition. Southampton, UK. November 2021.

Tampereen Tarinatehdas, open studio exhibition. Taike – Arts Promotion Centre, Tampere, Finland. September 2020.

Awards & Residencies:

Artist Residency, Kunstnarhuset Messen, Ålvik, Norway. January 2026.

Artist Grant, Gane Trust, UK. February 2024.

Artist Grant, The Eaton Fund, UK. February 2024.

Natural Inks for Silk-Screen Printing, instructional course and artist residency. Arquetopia Foundation. Oaxaca, Mexico. March 2022.

Venice Fellowship and Grant, Architecture Biennale 2020. British Council.

Performances:

WEMADE, performance by A Long Distance Collective for U Studio Event. Tate St Ives, UK. 23 November 2019.

Constellation to Appease, performance created by artist Otobong Nkanga with A Long Distance Collective for the opening night of her exhibition. Tate St Ives, UK. 20 September 2019.

Migration and the Spaces In-Between, performance choreographed by Sofie Hub for U Studio Event. Tate St Ives, UK. 23 March 2018.