Henni Alftan’s (b.1979, Helsinki) work stems from a deep engagement with the medium of painting – its methods and its histories – resulting in pictures of daily life that are intimately familiar and yet intriguingly unknowable. Her paintings depict everyday scenes and objects, often cropped or otherwise fragmented, each rendered with a studied economy of means.

Born in Finland, Alftan was educated in art in France, from 2001 at the Ecole Pilote Internationale d’Art et de Recherche de la Villa Arson, DNAP, in Nice, followed by an MFA in 2004 at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She remains based in Paris.

Alftan’s work has been the subject of solo and two-person exhibitions including By the Skin of My Teeth, Sprüth Magers, Berlin (forthcoming, 2025); O de Giotto, Galerie La Box, Bourges, France (2025); Stop Making Sense, Karma, New York (2024); House of Mirrors, Longlati Foundation, Shanghai (2024); Visitor, Karma, Los Angeles (2023); Contour, Sprüth Magers, London (2022); Night-time, Sprüth Magers, Berlin (2021); Henni Alftan & Dike Blair, Various Small Fires, Seoul (2020); Henni Alftan, Karma, New York (2020); and Henni Alftan, Studiolo, Milan, Italy (2019).

Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions including About Painting: Salvo, Andreas Schulze, Henni Alftan, Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul (forthcoming, 2025); Paysages recommencés, Frac-Artothèque, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Limoges, France (2025); Copyists, Centre pompidou-Metz, France (2025); The Swimmer, FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2024); Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (2024); I feel, for now, Amos Rex Museum, Helsinki (2024); Dialogues, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (2023); Ars Fennica 2023, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland (2023); Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Florida (2022); Dark Light: Realism in the Age of Post-Truths, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, The Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon (2022); Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined, LACMA, Los Angeles (2022); (Nothing but) Flowers, Karma, New York (2020); and Clichés-Peintures, paintings from the collections of Frac-Artotheque du Limousin, ENSA Limoges, Limoges, France (2020).

Alftan’s works are included in the collections of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; 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; JNBY Art Center, Shanghai; Hämeenlinna Museum of Art, Finland; Heino Art Foundation, Helsinki; Collection Clermont Métropole, France; FRAC (Fond régional d’art contemporain), Limousin, France; Portland Museum of Art, Oregon; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the UBS Art Collection.