Current exhibitions

Abstracting the Ordinary – Art from the Everyday
10 Oct 2024 until 13 April 2025

Is there such a thing as purely abstract art? What kind of abstractions shape our everyday lives? These are the questions explored by Abstracting the Ordinary – Art from the Everyday, the first instalment in a new exhibition series by Hämeenlinna Art Museum. At the core of our latest exhibit is the Niemistö Art Collection, on long-term deposit to the museum, which comprises Finnish and Nordic art from the 1950s to the present day. On display will be paintings, sculpture, photography, installation, drawings, prints and new media.

The exhibition series, based at the Lohrmann Building, will look at the Hämeenlinna Art Museum collections from two further perspectives during its run. Spirit and Passion – Art as Exhilaration will run from 6 May to 21 September 2025 while Strike a Pose – Scenes from Our Collections will take over from 14 October 2025 until 15 March 2026.

Abstracting the Ordinary will present works from the Hämeenlinna Art Museum collections with a focus on abstract, or nonfigurative, art. Abstract art is a modern form of artistic expression and yet it is nothing new. The elements that we now recognise as making up abstract art can be found in objects and their decorative designs created by people of different cultures throughout time.

Modern art, it is often thought, should aim for something other than ornamentation. Art is the expression of a thought, idea or feeling, things that we cannot see in our external visual reality. The term itself makes this explicit, referring to something non-material. At its most ideal, purely abstract art depicts itself and itself only. Even the titles given to abstract works serve to focus the viewer’s mind. Common names include “Composition” and “Untitled”.

Even abstract art tends to take its cue from the artist’s experience of the world around them. The visual motif might be based on something they have observed in the natural world or come across in their everyday, while the subject can be drawn from almost anything: traditional fabrics, architecture, the seasons. Reducing the subject to a series of visual elements, to forms, colours, rhythms and compositional patterns, allows the viewer to leave the figurative behind and to focus on their own experience, to become immersed in the artwork. 

Abstracting the Ordinary – Art from the Everyday will feature works by: Rakel Ahtola, Martti Aiha, Göran Augustson, Juhana Blomstedt, Tuomas  von Boehm, Kari Cavén, Jacob Dahlgren, Erik Enroth, Mauri Favén, Susanne Gottberg, Jorma Hautala, Eero Hiironen, Heikki Häiväoja, Maija Isola, Ola Kolehmainen, Matti Kujasalo, Antti Kytömäki, Kari Laitinen, Juhani Linnovaara, Ernst Mether-Borgström, Jukka Mäkelä, Leena Nio, Lars-Gunnar Nordström, Perttu Näsänen, Paul Osipow, Pauno Pohjolainen, Kimmo Pyykkö, Vesa-Pekka Rannikko, Mari Rantanen, Silja Rantanen, Mika Taanila, Osmo Valtonen, Sam Vanni, Väisänen, Lauri Välke and Ilkka Väätti.

Laila Karttunen: Life’s Colourful Tapestry
22 November 2024–4 May 2025

Guided tour in English Sun 24 Nov at 1PM

A new exhibition, titled Laila Karttunen: Life’s Colourful Tapestry, opens at Hämeenlinna Art Museum on 22 November 2024. Next year marks the 130^th anniversary of this remarkable artist’s birth.

Laila Karttunen (1895–1981) counts among the pioneers of Finnish textile art. As an artist, she had a strong interest in time, exploring the past and experimenting with the new. This exhibition will offer a complete survey of Karttunen’s career, comprising everything from sketches to rya rugs, oil paintings and textile art works.

The artist spent many decades in Hämeenlinna, working as teacher, designer and later artistic director of the Wetterhoff Craft School. Hämeenlinna Art Museum’s collection today encompasses a bequest of some 2,000 of her sketches, oil paintings and textile artworks.

A wide-ranging career saw Laila Karttunen pursue numerous creative interests, including research into traditional textiles and the latest developments in art. Karttunen, whose work was recognised with a Milan Triennial gold medal, was a leading light in the Finnish applied arts scene. She was able to effortlessly incorporate international influences, such as cubism and op art into her own artistic practice. In her deft hands, tapestries became a form of contemporary art and were firmly established as part of Finland’s arts heritage. “Yarn is my paint,” Laila Karttunen is known to have said of her art.

Upcoming Exhibitions

To be announced later