Sanni Pyhänniska is a visual artist currently based in Helsinki working across printmaking, drawing and textiles.

Alongside her artistic practice she works as a curator, illustrator, creative facilitator and event organiser in the arts sector.

Originally from Finland, she studied Illustration at Falmouth University, Cornwall graduating in 2020. During her studies she worked as a creative producer as part of Tate Collective in St Ives. Between 2022 and 2025 she worked as a member printmaker and later as a team member at Spike Print Studio in Bristol. Alongside working on Bristol Gallery Weekend and Spike Print Fair, she also curates and organises an annual charity exhibition called Women by Women.

Her art practice is intuitive and process-led playing with figures, texture and bold colour in her storytelling which often takes the form of multi-layered screenprints.

Deriving from personal memories and interactions, her work expresses feeling and inner worlds through a symbiosis between people and natural environments. Intentionally leaving space for the tricks our memory, subjectivity and sentimentality can play on us, her process teases slightly magical, coloured in versions of her stories out of a blurry place between real and imagined. Inspired by community and her own experience as a woman, her figures are inherently female, and her work is a place to illustrate the emotional terrains one navigates.

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.