Minkkinen, Arno Rafael

American, b. Finland 1945

BiographyBorn in Helsinki, Finland, Arno Rafael Minkkinen emigrated to the United States in 1951. He completed a BA in English at Wagner College, Staten Island (1967), and took art classes at the New School and the School of Visual Arts, both in New York City, before completing an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design (1973), where he studied under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. Minkkinen is represented in the Museum of Contemporary Photography's collection by a photograph in The Seventh Annual Portfolio of the Photographic Education Society, Rhode Island School of Design, which comprises works by the 1973 graduates of the program. Even in this early photograph, one can see the foundations of the artist's later work. Creating self-portraits that stand as visual metaphors, Minkkinen photographs his body in contorted forms in the natural landscape. The results are visually enigmatic with touches of the surreal. Minkkinen states, "Instead of giving expression to the world's outer appearances and perplexities, I have wished to explore the inner world of our fears, hopes, and desires in an attempt to make communion with the one world we inhabit. For thirty years now I have been engaged with this single idea: to use my own body as a means of expressing our relationship to nature." Throughout his career, Minkkinen has worked as creative director in advertising and taught at various institutions in the United States and Finland.