Antti Laitinen featured in Oulu2026 public art programme

Antti Laitinen is one of the featured artists of Climate Clock, a public art experience and one of the highlights of Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture year. The commissioned artists created six permanent artworks across forests, rivers, coastlines, urban environments and cultural heritage sites near Oulu area. The series connects art, science and local knowledge to reflect on the changing rhythms of the natural world. Climate Clock opened for public 13 June 2026.


In the forests of Kiiminki, Laitinen presents Olet Tässä (You Are Here), a meditative work that plays with perspective and presence. Inspired by the symbol that locates us on a map, Laitinen created six circular openings within the forest, formed by twisting branches to frame the view of the landscape. Nearby, two lichen-covered spheres suspended from the trees turn in the wind, attuning the viewer to movement in nature. Through the use of lichen, which lives for hundreds of years, the spheres become like living instruments of time and a bioindicator of air quality.


Climate Clock was curated by Alice Sharp. The permanent artworks will remain as part of the legacy of Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture 2026 and become part of the collection of the Oulu Museum of Art.

 

Photo: Maija Toivanen / Oulu2026

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Jorma Puranen’s solo exhibition at Laukko Manor

Jorma Puranen’s new photo series L’étang qui se souvenait de tout (The Pond That Remembered All) is on view at Laukko Manor from 10 June until 16 August 2026. The series was born in 2023, during a residency at the Fondation Claude Monet in Giverny, France. During that time Puranen explored and photographed the changing moods and fleeting light of the Giverny garden, which also inspired Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) late work. The line between photography and painting blurs in the dreamlike works shot with long exposure times. Puranen’s mysterious views are not direct landscape images, but reflections photographed from the glossy surface of a black lacquered panel – reminiscent of a ‘Claude glass’, popular with travellers of the past. The distorted, shimmering surfaces of Puranen’s works remind the viewer of Monet’s struggle with cataracts and impaired vision. The Pond That Remembered All is a meditative dialogue that travels through time, where the past flickers through reflections and memory becomes a lens of its own.

Image: Jorma Puranen, The Pond That Remembered All 12, 2024, pigment print, 80 x 61,5 cm, ed. 6

Karoliina Hellberg and Essi kuokkanen at Sara Hildén Art Museum

Karoliina Hellberg and Essi Kuokkanen are featured in the Freshly Painted exhibition at Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere. The exhibition showcases the work of 22 young female artists, living and working in Finland and primarily using painting as their artistic medium.

The name and exhibition concept were suggested by Marika Mäkelä, as a nod to Rakastettu kuva exhibition held in Tampere in 1986, one of the first exhibitions in Finland to showcase exclusively female-created art in a male-dominated art world. To coincide with the exhibition, Sara Hildén Art Museum has published an illustrated catalogue featuring an article by Anna Tuori. Freshly Painted runs until 30 August 2026.