Biography

Anna-Kaisa Kukkonen-Madi is a Finnish glass artist who wants to let glass behave in its characteristic way. ´I don´t want to disturb the original character of glass´, she says. In the process of designing a glass sculpture she thinks how glass would show it´s beauty, three dimensionality, transparency and organic nature best. Anna-Kaisa works with her professional team of artisans in Riihimäki. She aims at reduced form with emotion, strength and sensitivity. ´I try to find the soul of a phenomen and save it in glass.´

Anna-Kaisa is inspired by nature. Her minimalistic artworks are both sensitive and powerful. The pure form of her glass sculptures reflects the sincerity of northern nature where a human is not an observer but a part of nature´s endless cycle. Anna-Kaisa's art speaks for pure nature and especially for pure water. Her installation S A A R E T Islands is a fragile but strong message for unspoiled  water. She exhibits her glass sculptures in white light like the rarest jewelry to underline the thought that pure nature is the only luxury we have and there´s not much left of it.

Anna-Kaisa is especially interested in memory traces which originate in people´s environment. ´The sound, scent and visual appearance of our environment shape our lives. Our experience of environment is changing rapidly. My items are like reminders or notes of what there once has been´, she says.

The artist lives and works in Eastern Finland surrounded by lakes and woods. ´For me nature is the joy and the shelter´, she says.