Henni Alftan (b. 1979, Helsinki, Finland) is a Paris-based painter who creates pictures based on a complex process of observation and deduction. Working in figuration but rejecting a narrative dimension, Alftan’s compositions use the tight framing of close range photography to explore the similarities between painting and image-making. “I paint pictures,” Alftan says, and “painting and picture often imitate each other.” Inviting viewers to consider the history, materiality, and objecthood of painting, Alftan’s vignettes represent a fragmented vision of the real and address pictorial issues such as color, surface, flatness, depth, pattern, texture, and framing devices. You can see how she translated her style into a coloring book page in Between the Lines: An RxART Coloring Book by Contemporary Artists – Volume 9.
Recent solo exhibitions include Karma, Los Angeles (2023); Sprüth Magers, London (2022); Karma, New York (2020); Studiolo, Milan (2019); and TM-Galleria, Helsinki (2018). Her work is represented in the collections of the Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki; Dallas Museum of Art; EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Helsinki Art Museum; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Finland; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the UBS Art Collection, among others.