New public sculpture by Anne Koskinen unveiled

A new commissioned public sculpture by Anne Koskinen has been unveiled in Tampere. The piece, titled Läpi harmaan kiven, was created as a tribute to the work and legacy of the Lotta Svärd organization, a women’s voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation that operated between 1921 and 1944. The monument consists of two natural stone boulders, the larger of which is illustrated with the lotta and pikkulotta uniforms; the years 1921–1944; and the Finnish national flower lily-of-the-valley. A smaller stone depicts a child figure with a place for a candle in its hands. The monument is located in the northern part of Tampere’s Cathedral Park. The work will be added to the art collection of the city of Tampere managed by the Tampere Art Museum.

Photo: Matias Ahonen / Courtesy of Tampere Art Museum

Karoliina Hellberg at Maison Louis Carré

Karoliina Hellberg takes part in Quiet Hours group exhibition at the Maison Louis Carré, in France, with Tero Kuitunen and Raimo Saarinen. In the spring of 2024 the artists spent five days at Maison Louis Carré, observing the villa’s atmosphere, history, and surroundings. Now, the paintings, scent installations, and sculptures attune themselves to the space and reflect on the lives that may have unfolded within Maison Louis Carré. Quiet Hours is the trio’s third collaboration, having previously created a joint installation in Alvar Aalto villa in Sunila in 2017, and an exhibition at the Amos Rex Museum in Helsinki in 2021.

Listed as a historic monument, Maison Louis Carré is the only building in France designed by Alvar Aalto. It was built in 1959 for French art dealer and collector Louis Carré and his wife Olga, and embodies the distinctive design features of Aalto’s philosophy.

Quiet Hours is on view until 30 November 2025.

Installation view. Photo: Tero Kuitunen

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Dolven, Hellberg, Merenmies and Tuori in British Museum’s collection exhibition

A K Dolven, Karoliina Hellberg, Elina Merenmies and Anna Tuori will be featured in The British Museum’s upcoming exhibition Nordic noir: works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson. The exhibition is the culmination of a five-year programme dedicated to building the Museum’s collection of post-war Nordic artwork, featuring over 150 works by 100 artists from the Nordic countries. The exhibition opens 9 October 2025 and runs until 22 March 2026.

The landmark collecting project, supported by a charitable organisation AKO Foundation, resulted in the acquisition by the British Museum of almost 400 works by artists from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – including works by Dolven, Hellberg, Merenmies and Tuori, as well as graphic prints by Jorma Hautala and Matti Kujasalo. The British Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings holds one of the world’s greatest collections of works on paper, consisting of about 50,000 drawings and more than two million prints.

Nordic noir delves into the Nordic melancholy, myths, inner struggles, post-war angst, feminism and the rights of the Indigenous Sámi people. The dominant theme is nature and the vital urgency to preserve the environment unique to the region. To coincide with the exhibition, an illustrated catalogue written by Jennifer Ramkalawon, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Nordic Graphic Art department, will be published by the British Museum Press.

Image: Anna Tuori, Done, 2023, soft pastel and oil pastel on paper, 65x50cm. Photo: Jussi Tiainen

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