Eeva-Leena Eklund

Eeva-Leena Eklund, Bukett, 2020–2023, 140 x 112 cm

In the Finnish State Art Commission Collection

EEVA-LEENA EKLUND is a collector by nature whose enthusiasm, affection and caring remain untainted by cynicism or calculation and feel fresh, even defiant in this day and age. Eklund’s practice is rooted in cycles and layering: her paintings can refer to recurring motifs, to everyday objects and things tinged with nostalgia, and to one another. In her exhibitions, the works often fall into associative chains and sequences, or form walk-in installations. Eklund’s practice is characterised by the rejection of many artistic conventions, such as seeming suitability of subject matter or restrained and conventional composition, and by a deliberate, feminist subversion of norms. Pastel softness and unrestrained exuberance of colour, humour and gravity, the wild and the contemplated, the universal and the intensely personal – in Eklund’s works, everything holds true at once and in parallel.

Eeva-Leena Eklund (b. 1972, Pori) lives and works in Helsinki. Eklund has exhibited her work in many solo and group exhibitions, including at Almintalo, Loviisa; HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, Monitoimitila_O, Helsinki; SIC, Helsinki; Galleria Snow, Berlin; Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki; and Oulu Art Museum. In 2020, Eklund became the first Finnish artist invited to present a major solo exhibition in the commission series of EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art and the Saastamoinen Foundation. Her works are held in numerous private and major public collections, including those of HAM Helsinki Art Museum, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, and the Finnish National Gallery. 

Best Wishes, 2023
Installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Best Wishes, 2023
Installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Lihis, 2023
mixed media
60,5 x 50 cm

Pizza (Karkki), 2019
mixed media on canvas
70 x 70 cm

Best Wishes, 2023
Installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Orvokki (Punainen), 2023
mixed media
120 x 90 cm

Kivikissa, 2004
mixed media
12 x 19 x 10 cm

In HAM Helsinki Art Museum Collection

Jalka, 2020
pigment print
93,5 x 70 cm
Ed. 3

Best Wishes, 2023
Installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Selection of available works. For the full list, please contact galerie(at)anhava.com

Feather, 2016
mixed media on canvas
170 x 120 cm

Paljon onnea, 2023
mixed media
70 x 90 cm

Kivikissa (Tipi), 2023
mixed media
9,5 x 10 x 15 cm

Kalevin toinen kissa, 2020
mixed media on canvas
103 x 87 cm

Pizza (Karkki), 2019
mixed media
70 x 70 cm

Holiday, 2003
mixed media
81 x 56 cm

Cobweb, 2010
mixed media on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Kiiltokuva, 2023
mixed media on canvas
150 x 200,5 cm

Tassu (Paw), 2025
mixed media on canvas
25 x 20 cm

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BioCVExhibitions

Exhibitions

Bio

Eeva-Leena Eklund is a collector by nature whose art draws its subject matter from everyday events and observations, as well as from collections built up over many years. Her enthusiasm, affection and caring remain untainted by cynicism or calculation and feel fresh, even defiant in this day and age. As when, in the run-up to her exhibition, Eklund wrote down her thoughts in longhand on blue-lined, cream-coloured writing paper: ”All the flowers I love: violet, lily of the valley, anemone, dahlia, gerbera, carnation, hydrangea…” The works in the exhibition too, are like letters or postcards sent from Eklund’s world to ours: Greetings from here!

Eklund seeks, selects and organises small, mundane items (e.g., a pancake that’s been bitten into), discarded objects (a towel found at a flea market) and despised motifs (swans and flower arrangements scorned as kitsch). These are themes that she returns to again and again in her paintings. The zappy lines in her Holiday series ripple from one painting to the next like the Northern Lights or the patterns of a tracksuit whizzing past on the jogging path. The round pizza abstractions are topped with increasingly imaginative and sweeter toppings. Fantasia – not some magical world of the imagination but a cheerful pizza pie with carefully selected toppings of your own choosing – is the word that comes to mind when you examine Eklund’s work.

The artist’s work is like layered candy cane: you don’t tear into it hungrily with your teeth but instead, take your time to savour it. And indeed, Eklund can sometimes work on a piece for years until it comes together (sometimes the practical thing is to extend the canvas by adjoining a new piece with a sewing machine). Oil paint, ink, chalk, acrylic, tempera and spray-paint can coexist happily on a single canvas. Eklund’s signature salon-style hanging, consisting of paintings, photographs and objects, is like an unruly yet purposeful string of associations. A herd of stone cats watches from the floor with eyes wide.

Restrictions or rules, such as conventional display or acceptable motifs, have never really interested Eklund. However, frameworks and symmetry can also inform her work: in the Scarf series, the square shape has provided Eklund with a kind of game board on which to create playful ornamental compositions. The heart shape on the surface of the works is like the pointer on an ouija board, delivering a friendly and sincere message from the other side: Have a nice day!

–Oona Latto

CV

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EEVA-LEENA EKLUND

b.1972, Pori
Lives and works in Helsinki

STUDIES

1998-2003 MA, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland
1993-1997 Turku Drawing School, Turku, Finland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2026
    • Things, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2023
    • Best Wishes, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2022  
    • toast, Monitoimitila_O, Helsinki
  • 2020
    • :), EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo
    • Vallilan panimon galleria, Helsinki
  • 2017
    • Vanha Raatihuone, Turku
    • SIC, Helsinki
  • 2012
    • Kaapelin Galleria, Helsinki
  • 2011
    • Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki
  • 2008
    • Galleria Huoltamo, Tampere
  • 2004
    • Korjaamon Pikku-Galleria, Helsinki
    • Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki
  • 2003
    • season mix, Kluuvin galleria, Helsinki
  • 2001
    • voyage voyage, Academy of Fine Arts gallery, Helsinki
  • 2000
    • käytävä!-galleria, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
  • 1999
    • Homelife, Näyteikkunagalleria, Fastarts, Turku
  • 1997
    • Turku Drawing School degree show, Titanik, Turku

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2026
    • Väreissä – Färgglad, Almintalo, Loviisa
  • 2025
    • Toivonoja Summer Exhibition, Lahti
  • 2024
    • Mikä väri, Turku Art Museum, Turku
    • Piknik, Måll, Karjaa
    • Kuka on eläin?, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki
    • Runo Biannual V, Runo Hotel, Porvoo
  • 2023
    • olla/about being, galleria SNOW, Berliini
  • 2019
    • Kukkia ja Kasoja, with Petra Vehviläisen, Galleria Rantakasarmi, Helsinki
  • 2018
    • KLAK, Nellim
    • Opettajia ja Oppilaita, Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki
  • 2016
    • Luonnostamme, Riihigalleria, Kuhmoinen
  • 2014
    • Häntä pystyyn! – Terveisin kissat ja koirat, Oulu Art Museum
    • arSboretum 14, Westers, Kemiö
    • Pink, Lokal, Helsinki
  • 2012
    • Metsien miehet, Salo Art Museum
    • Aaargh, 10 vuotta myöhemmin, Galleria Huuto, L3, Jätkäsaari, Helsinki
  • 2011
    • Hommage, Villa Roosa, Orimattila
  • 2010
    • diamond palaa, Pori
  • 2009
    • subvision.kunst.festival.off., Hampuri
    • Eeva-Leena Eklund and Maiju Salmenkivi, Taidesalonki Husa, Tampere
    • Megalomania, Galleria Huoltamo, Tampere
    • Eeva-Leena Eklund and Milla Toivanen, Forum Box, Helsinki
  • 2008
    • Fennofolk, Design Museum, Helsinki
    • Ihmisiä niityllä, Galleria Huuto, Helsinki
    • Eklund, Salmenkivi and Toivanen, City Hall, Haag, Hollanti
  • 2006
    • Eklund, Salmenkivi and Toivanen, European Parliament, Bryssel
    • Eklund, Salmenkivi and Toivanen, Turku Art Museum’s Studio
    • Eklund, Salmenkivi and Toivanen, Forum Box, Helsinki
    • Exät, Academy of Fine Arts gallery, Helsinki
  • 2005
    • Vasta maalattu – peinture fraiche!, Kerava Art Museum
  • 2004
    • Happy mix, yhdessä Kati Immosen kanssa, Galleria Huuto, Helsinki
    • Galleria Krista Mikkola, Helsinki
    • vasta maalattu – peinture fraiche!, Le Triage, Pariisi, Ranska
  • 2003
    • Meat Lovers, Umppa Niinivaara ja Eeva-Leena Eklund, Galleria Just, Turku
  • 2002
    • s.1972, Helsinki Kunsthalle
    • enter. painting, the Embassy of Finland in London
    • Eeva-Leena Eklund and Miia Rinne, Poriginal galleria, Pori
    • MFA Degree show, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
  • 2001  
    • Xanadu, Forum Box, Helsinki
    • Situaciones, Cuenca, Espania
  • 2000  
    • Summer Holiday, Poriginal galleria, Pori
    • Tikkulan taidetalo, Pori
    • Eklund, Salmenkivi, Toivanen, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
    • lesmiserables, Hanna Heinonen and Eeva-Leena Eklund, Titanik, Turku
  • 1999
    • Ilmassa, Academy of Fine Arts gallery, Helsinki
  • 1998
    • Artgenda-Retro,Stadtgalerie, Kiel, Saksa
    • Rantagalleria, Turku
    • Artgenda, Kulturhuset, Tukholma
    • Kermavaahto, Rauma Art Museum Åland Island’s Art Museum
  • 1995
    • Lounais-Suomen Nuorta Taidetta, Rauma Art Museum

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS

Saastamoisen säätiö
EMMA
Helsingin kaupungin taidemuseo
Jenny ja Antti Wihurin rahasto
Valtion taidekokoelmat
Turun Piirustuskoulu
Wäinö Aaltosen museo
Åbo Akademi
Statens Konstråd, Ruotsi
Suomen Taideyhdistys, Teosarpajaiset
Private collections

AWARDS AND PRIZES

2013 William Thuring -designated prize, Finnish Art Society

PUBLIC WORKS

Käsiala, Lauttasaari elementary school, Helsinki
Kauniit sanat, Pohjoisväylä elementary school, Pori