”Vesa’s art is amongst the most integrally advanced in the history of Western abstraction – no small claim, but one backed up by the works themselves.”
- Michael Schwartz, Professor of History and Philosophy of Art
Integral Institute feature
VESA (Vesa Kivinen, b. 1978, Finland) works across painting, photography, digital composition, animation, and immersive environments. The work uses whatever vehicle serves the inquiry — a canvas, a human body, a car, an architectural space — to explore sovereignty, consciousness, and the symbolic languages that connect human beings to something beyond the immediate.
The practice has been exhibited at the Museum of the Future in Dubai, Art Dubai, the Dubai World Expo (Danish and Israeli Pavilions), and the Theatre of Digital Art, among others. An earlier project reached an audience of 300 million through BBC World and international press. VESA has been working across physical and digital since 2008.
He is represented by Cermak Eisenkraft Gallery (Czech Republic & International) and as a speaker by Speakers Forum (Scandinavia).
Watch the mini-doc above on Youtube (2022)
### Institutional & Museum
- Museum of the Future, Dubai — Rhizomatic, via Morrow Collective (2022)
- Dubai World Expo — Danish Pavilion & Israeli Pavilion (2022)
- Art Dubai Digital — with Morrow Collective (2022, 2023)
- Theatre of Digital Art, Dubai — with Unyted (2025)
- Arab World Institute, Paris — Metaculture (2023)
- Baltic Biennale, St. Petersburg (2010)
- Finlandia House, Helsinki — Völvan, with Composer Leif Segerstam (2010)
- Integral Institute, Sonoma State University, USA (2009, 2015)
### Commissions & Collaborations
- Phygital portrait commission for UAE Minister of State Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh
- Art Cars, Dubai — patron Dr Marwan Al Zarouni, CEO of AI at Dubai Economy and Tourism (ongoing)
- The Brittany Kaiser Project — with the subject of Netflix's The Great Hack (in production)
- The Veena Malik Project — reaching 300M people via BBC World, The Independent, Times of India (2013)
- Biohacking Summit, Helsinki — featured artist, speaker, and visual identity (2016, 2022)
- Völvan symphony visual — collaboration with conductor Leif Segerstam (2010)
### Gallery Exhibitions
- Cypher Capital Hub, Dubai JBR (2023–2025)
- FT NFT Gallery, Dubai Mall (2023)
- Swiss NFT Art Day, Zug (2023)
- Arts Galore, solo exhibition, Dubai (2022)
- Versace Mansion, Miami (2020)
- Bloomsbury Gallery, London (2020)
- Art Fort Lauderdale (2019)
- Art Palm Beach (2016)
- Bulevardi 7 Gallery, Helsinki — solo exhibition (2010)
### Speaking & Keynotes
- Outer Edge, Riyadh (2024)
- Biohacking Summit, Helsinki (2016, 2022)
- World Blockchain Conference, Abu Dhabi (2021)
- World Crypto Con, Las Vegas (2018, 2019)
- Litecoin Summit, Las Vegas (2019)
- CC Forum, London
- WOW Summit, Dubai
- Future Innovation Summit
- TMRW Conference, Belgrade
Represented by Speakers Forum and MySpeaker Agency.
---
## AWARDS
- NFT Artist of the Year — AIBC Summit, Dubai (2023)
- Grand Prize — World Artist Award, South Korea (2022)
- Top Web3 Artist — L'Officiel Arabia (2022)
---
## SELECTED COLLECTORS
Charles Hoskinson (Cardano) · Charlie Lee (Litecoin) · Dr Marwan Al Zarouni · Dr John Demartini · H.E. Amna Fikri · Mondoir · Saeed Al Darmaki · Colborn · Tone Vays · Willy Woo · Coach K
---
## PRESS
BBC World · Forbes · The Independent · Vice · Times of India · International Business Times · CoinTelegraph · Helsinki Times · City A.M. · 500px · Suomen Kuvalehti · Benzinga
---
## EDUCATION
BA Media Production — Northumbria University (2003)
NLP Master Practitioner
---
## PRIOR CAREER
Before art full-time, VESA ran a production company (2000–2012) producing documentaries, short films, and TV series, working with brands including Absolut Vodka, Nokia, Nissan, and Samsung.