Nastja Säde Rönkkö

Nastja Säde Rönkkö is a Finnish visual artist, video artist, and film director. She is best known as one-third of the performance art collective LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner, alongside actor Shia LaBeouf and artist Luke Turner. Rönkkö's solo work spans video, performance, installation, and participatory art, often exploring themes of digital power, human connection, and planetary futures. She has described her practice as "dreaming about the future" while investigating "politics and poetics of emotion." Her work has screened at international film festivals and exhibitions worldwide, including Turku Art Museum, Helsinki International Film Festival, and Lago Film Festival. She won the Young Artist of the Year award in Finland in 2019 and the Below Zero art prize in 2023. Rönkkö's distinctive approach centers on love, slowness, and affection as radical, silent acts of resistance. [edit]

Rönkkö was born in Helsinki, Finland, in 1985. She has described feeling privileged to have grown up in the 1990s before social media became a central part of identity. This dual perspective — experiencing both pre-digital and digital worlds — deeply influences her artistic work. Details about her childhood and formal education are sparse in public sources. She began her career as a visual artist in Finland before connecting with international collaborators. [edit]

In 2014, Luke Turner contacted Rönkkö after meeting Shia LaBeouf in London. The three met in Los Angeles and found immediate chemistry, forming LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner. Their first performance, #IAMSORRY, took place in Los Angeles, followed by #ALLMYMOVIES (2015) and #TOUCHMYSOUL (2015). In 2016, they created #TAKEMEANYWHERE and #ELEVATE, a 24-hour elevator performance at Oxford University. The collective's most ambitious project, #HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US, ran from 2017 to 2021 as a live-streamed performance. Rönkkö also built a strong solo career. In 2018, she won five international film festival awards, including Best Experimental Film at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and Best Director in Short Film at Marietta International Film Festival. She completed residencies at Matadero Madrid (2016), Wysing Arts Centre (2018), and Somerset House Studios (2018–2019). In 2019, she received the Young Artist of the Year award in Finland. Her 2022 solo exhibition "Those Who Kept the Light" at Turku Art Museum featured video works about women lighthouse keepers. She won the Below Zero art prize in 2023. [edit]

Rönkkö is regarded as a serious conceptual artist whose collaboration with LaBeouf and Turner stems from artistic curiosity rather than celebrity culture. Her work explores digital-age relationships with power, humanity, and planetary futures, with a focus on love, slowness, and affection as radical acts. She has no documented fandom name; her audience consists primarily of art world professionals and festival attendees. [edit]

Nastja Säde Rönkkö commands a global audience defined by the specific confines of the contemporary art world rather than mass pop-culture consumption. Her reach extends through international film festivals, gallery exhibitions, and the niche sphere of performance art enthusiasts who follow the trajectory of her collaborative work with LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner. Unlike figures whose fame is measured in tabloid circulation or social media metrics, Rönkkö's attention is concentrated among critics, curators, and festival attendees who engage with her practice as serious conceptual inquiry. iFANN has not yet collected sufficient data to assign a numerical rank to her current standing in the global hierarchy of celebrity. Consequently, no ordinal placement can be cited for her position within the world population or any specific industry category at this time. The absence of a formal ranking reflects the specialized nature of her public profile, which operates outside the parameters of standard fame algorithms that prioritize broad consumer engagement. Regarding her fanbase, there is no documented name for an organized community supporting Nastja Säde Rönkkö individually. Her supporters are primarily professionals within the art sector and viewers of her screenings, rather than a group characterized by official fandom structures, campaigns, or ritualized support. The collective LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner maintains a digital presence with nearly one hundred thousand followers on major platforms, yet these accounts function as exhibition hubs rather than forums for a dedicated fan culture. Interaction remains rooted in the participatory nature of the artworks themselves, where the public engages directly with installations like #IAMSORRY instead of performing traditional fan rituals for the artist.[edit]

Nastja Säde Rönkkö was born in 1985, the same year the modern internet emerged, placing her artistic practice at the intersection of two distinct eras. She has stated that she was never interested in celebrity or fame, a perspective that allowed her to collaborate authentically with Shia LaBeouf and Luke Turner. Her solo exhibition "Those Who Kept the Light" required traveling through Denmark and Norway to document stories of women who tended lighthouse lights. Describing her practice as "dreaming about the future," she investigates the politics and poetics of emotion while exploring themes of human connection and planetary futures. Her works are distributed by AV-Arkki, The Centre for Finnish Media Art. A central narrative in her career involves the installation "He Will Not Divide Us," which premiered coinciding with Donald Trump's inauguration. The neon sign became a flashpoint for political controversy, enduring multiple attacks by far-right extremists that necessitated its relocation four times before it moved to Liverpool. Another widely referenced moment is the road trip project "#TAKEMEANYWHERE," which served as the basis for a film and live performance featuring high-profile stunts like LaBeouf spending 24 hours inside an elevator. These events define the group's legacy as they turned Hollywood notoriety into high-art discourse. The mythology surrounding Rönkkö is inextricably linked to the verified documentation of these performance art projects, particularly the endurance of "He Will Not Divide Us" against political division. A further legendary incident from their early collaboration involved LaBeouf wearing a paper bag over his head during the project "#IAMSORRY." This event included a film screening and a public apology session that became a viral sensation, cementing the trio's reputation for absurdist, meta-commentary performance art.[edit]

Rönkkö lives in Helsinki, Finland. No public information is available about her parents, siblings, or family background. [edit]

Shia LaBeouf and Luke Turner, her collaborators in LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner, are her most notable associates. Turner initially contacted Rönkkö about collaborating after meeting LaBeouf in London. [edit]

No public romantic relationships are documented for Nastja Säde Rönkkö. The available sources focus entirely on her professional work and collaborations. As of 2026, her relationship status is unknown. [edit]

No verified net worth figures are publicly available for Rönkkö as of 2026. Per iFANN's editorial analysis, her estimated net worth stands at $1 Million. As a visual artist working primarily in video and performance art, her income derives from exhibition fees, artist residencies, prize money, and distribution of her videos through AV-Arkki. She has won several cash prizes, including the Young Artist of the Year award (2019) and the Below Zero art prize (2023). Her financial standing reflects a career trajectory defined by international exposure and recognition within the serious conceptual art community.[edit]

Rönkkö won five international film festival awards in 2018, including Best Experimental Film at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and Best Director in Short Film at Marietta International Film Festival. She received the Young Artist of the Year award in Finland in 2019 and the Below Zero art prize in 2023. [edit]