Exhibitions
Current exhibitions
Strike a Pose – Scenes from Our Collections
14 October 2025–5 April 2026
Lohrmann building
The third and final instalment in an exhibition series, Strike a Pose – Scenes from Our Collections again turns to the artworks held in the Hämeenlinna Art Museum collection to explore myths, ideologies, social norms, turning points in history, the great narratives of the human condition and the way our identities are constructed. What roles have the featured artists inhabited in order to present us with their ideas? Who are some of the major characters in art, and what kind of poses do they strike for us?
Art and artists have a distinct role to play in conveying the great narratives to us. We need artists to tell us something significant and essential about our attitudes and the society we live in; who we are, where we have come from and where we are headed.
Artists inhabit many roles: they are observers, illustrators, narrators, creators, moral guardians, teachers, historians, philosophers, truth seekers and revealers of the power dynamics and hidden norms that shape our lives. This exhibition asks what kind of roles we can discover within art and what remains of them when the costumes come off.
Strike a Pose – Scenes from Our Collections will feature works by the following artists:
Aleksanteri Ahola-Valo, Taisto Ahtola, Martti Aiha, Emma Ainala, Henni Alftan, Ernst Billgren, Stefan Bremer, Kalle Carlstedt, Albert Edelfelt, Anne-Karin Furunes, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Hannaleena Heiska, Ester Helenius, William Hogarth, Franz M. Jansen, Eero Järnefelt, Kimmo Kaivanto, Pekka Kauhanen, Unto Koistinen, Kuniyoshi, Marjo Lahtinen, Juhani Linnovaara, Antti Oikarinen, Pauno Pohjolainen, Ulla Rantanen, Anni Rapinoja, Aurora Reinhard, Helene Schjerfbeck, Kimmo Schroderus, Hugo Simberg, Mari Sunna, Pilvi Takala, Kain Tapper, Esko Tirronen, Toyokuni III (Kunisada), Marjukka Vainio, Viggo Wallensköld and Henry Wuorila-Stenberg
This exhibition series, housed in Hämeenlinna Art Museum’s red-brick Lohrmann Building is designed to shift its perspective in response to and in reflection with new exhibitions launching in the museum’s Engel Building. Strike a Pose – Scenes from Our Collections (14 October 202–5 April 2026) is the third and final instalment in the series. It follows Abstracting the Ordinary – Art from the Everyday (10 October 2024–13 April 2025) and Spirit and Passion – Art as Ecstasy (6 May–21 September 2025). At the core of this series is the Niemistö Collection, on long-term deposit to the museum and comprising Finnish and Nordic art from the 1950s to the present day.
The exhibition is curated by Tanja Pääskynen, Curator, Hämeenlinna Art Museum.
Upcoming exhibitions
24 fps / Reframing Cinema
21.11.2025–3.5.2026
Engel building
In 24 fps / Reframing Cinema paintings come to life and reveal their secrets with the help of moving images.
The exhibition presents new cinematic interpretations of some of the most memorable works held in our collection. The original artworks and the short films they inspired will be shown side by side, surrounded by the sets and props. The featured works include Wilho Sjöström’s Portrait of a Dancer (1912), Severin Falkman’s Bride (1878) and Arvo Makkonen’s Ragnar Ekelund Paints (1917).
Hämeenlinna Art Museum and Aalto University’s Department of Film have worked together for many years to bring about this exhibition. As part of the collaboration, students were invited to choose artworks from the museum collection to inspire their own creative practice and worked together in multidisciplinary teams to produce everything from short films and audio works to scripts. The project established a unique space for art-driven learning, experimentation and research, with the students also responsible for designing the exhibition’s visual identity. The exhibition’s immersive, theatrical setting was created as part of a course on exhibition design, run earlier this year at Aalto University.
24 fps / Reframing Cinema is the result of a collaboration between Hämeenlinna Art Museum and Aalto University’s Department of Film that ran from 2021 until 2025. We are grateful to Kone Foundation for their funding and would also like to thank Angel Films for their support.
Antti Laitinen
9.5.2026–Autumn 2026
