Current | Upcoming Exhibitions | Past Exhibitions
Current
Harri Pälviranta, Douglas, Arizona, USA, From the series Wall Tourist. Photo: Harri Pälviranta.
Harri Pälviranta
10 October 2025 – 15 February 2026
Harri Pälviranta (b. 1971 Tampere) is a Helsinki-based photographer, freelance researcher and teacher. His works of art have been exhibited in more than 150 exhibitions in over 30 countries. Pälviranta has published articles on photography in Finnish and foreign publications, lectured and led workshops in Finland and abroad, and worked as a freelance curator.
Pälviranta’s photographic interests are connected to society, and he often deals with themes of power and violence and reflects on topics concerning manhood and masculinity. In many of his projects, these two approaches are linked. His visual method is often post-documentary: while he works partly within the continuum of social documentary photography, he also borrows, recycles and edits material produced by others, works in the studio and is not afraid to use text either. Experimentation and playfulness also have a place in Pälviranta’s work.
The exhibition at the Mikkeli Art Museum includes both photographic and video art. The exhibition was produced with support from the Finnish Heritage Agency.
Upcoming 2026
Sanna Kannisto, Aegolius funereus, 2023, pigment print on paper, framed, 61 x 81 cm, The Collection of Jyväskylä Art Museum ©Kuvasto ry
Whose Nature? – On Shared Trails
28 February – 24 May
The exhibition invites us to examine our relationship with nature from a new perspective. It seeks sustainable co-existence with the diversity of life and encourages us to reflect on our notions of nature and its values.
Photographic art depicting nature is now more important than ever before, as it plays a significant role in renewing the relationship between nature and humans. If nature is showcased in customary ways, it stays conventional. The artworks in the exhibition do not depict only nature – they offer insights, lingering moments and surprising viewpoints. Could art inspire us to work for the good of nature?
The exhibition is curated by photographers Harri Heinonen and Marko Hämäläinen and features many award-winning contemporary photographers. Their artworks invite us to consider on whose terms we view and experience nature – and how we can use art to createconnections within our diverse community of species.
The artists in the exhibition include Ilkka Halso, Harri Heinonen, Marko Hämäläinen, Sanna Kannisto, Ritva Kovalainen, Sanni Seppo, Juha Suonpää as well as Team Saxifraga: Julia Kemppinen, Kikka Niittynen, Pekka Niittynen, Heikki Willamo.
The exhibition was produced with support from the Finnish Heritage Agency.
Logo for the 14th Mikkeli Illustration Triennial.
Mikkeli’s 14th Illustration Triennial
13 June –13 September
Mikkeli’s 14th Illustration Triennial presents the breadth and versatility of contemporary illustration. In our highly visualised culture, illustration has expanded beyond its traditional publication channels. The triennial is implemented as a competition in which the artists are free to choose the theme, execution and technique for their illustrations. All the works of art chosen for the exhibition have been published over the last three years. A five-member jury chooses the artworks for the exhibition. The Mikkeli Art Museum and the Association of Visual Communication Designers in Finland, Grafia, established the event in 1987, and the Finnish Illustration Association, Kuvittajat, has participated in the cooperation since 2008.
Seppo Väänänen, Korpit, 1983, oil on canvas, 142 x 173 cm, The Collection of Varkaus Museum Center Konsti, ©Kuvasto ry. Photo: Tuomas Toratti.
Teemu Saukkonen, Anno Domini, 1984, acryl on hardboard, 211 x 114 cm, The Collection of Kuopio Art Museum ©Kuvasto ry. Photo: Kuopio Art Museum.
The Wild – The Rise and Defiance of the Kuopio School
25 September 2026 – 14 February 2027
The Mikkeli Art Museum’s last exhibition of the year 2026 takes us back to Kuopio in the 1980s, when the city became a vibrant centre for visual arts that attracted nationwide interest. Young, newly graduated visual arts professionals moved to the city, and the press began to refer to them as the Kuopio School or the Kuopio School of Thought.
Kuopio’s wild ones revitalised the local art scene with their provocative, disruptive and, at times, disturbing style. Whilst Kuopio was largely a hub for amateur artists in the 1970s, in the following decade, the young professionals took over the local art scene. The exhibition focuses on the influential figures of the period: Markku Kolehmainen, Pentti Meklin, Pauno Pohjolainen and Teemu Saukkonen.
The exhibition has been implemented in cooperation with Varkaus Museum Center Konsti and Kuopio Art Museum Kumma.
2025
Aino Vihervä-Muukka, Landscape from Lapland, 1940s, oil on canvas, 50,3 x 61,2 cm, Mikkelin kaupungin taidekokoelma / City of Mikkeli Art Collection. Photo: Harri Heinonen. ©The artist’s estate.
Living by the Arts – Artist Couple Aino and Yrjö Muukka
7 June – 21 September 2025
The impact of the painters Aino Vihervä-Muukka (1899–1992) and Yrjö S. Muukka (1891–1953) is important particularly to the art scene in Mikkeli. They worked persistently to enrich the local art scene as artists, art teachers and founding members of the Mikkeli Art Association. They participated actively in national collective exhibitions, but they have not received much attention in the field of Finnish art. However, their art and artist identities cannot be ignored when looking at the art of South Savo and Mikkeli.
The exhibition at the Mikkeli Art Museum presents Aino’s and Yrjö’s work for the first time on a large scale. Curator Paula Hyvönen oversees the selection of the artworks for the exhibition. The couple’s artworks included in the collections of the Mikkeli Art Museum form the basis for the selection. The majority of the artworks presented in the exhibition are on loan from private collections. The exhibition consists of almost a hundred works of art.
In addition to their day jobs, Aino and Yrjö were prolific painters, whose works of art focused on rural and forest landscapes, the rocky shores of their summer residence in Haapasaari, the fell scenery of Lapland and the street views of Paris.
Henry Wuorila-Stenberg, Untitled, 2024, oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm. Photo: Jussi Tiainen. © Kuvasto
Jukka Korkeila, On The Other Side of Life, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 191 x 292 cm. Photo Jussi Tiainen. © Taiteilija
Ville Löppönen, St John the Forerunner II, 2024, spray paint, acrylic-, oil paint and oil pastel on panel, 40 x 30 cm. Photo: Ville Löppönen. © Kuvasto
Anni Löppönen, Untitled from the Series Like Inconstant Dream, 2015, Pro-sec print, edition 1/3, 150 x 100 cm. Photo Anni Löppönen. © Kuvasto
Ulla Karttunen, Tractatus Sensualis-Ecstaticus, 2024, digital paint, pigment on acrylic and aluminium, Diasec, 150 x 120 cm. Photo: Ulla Karttunen. © Kuvasto
Manifest of Stillness
Ulla Karttunen, Jukka Korkeila, Anni Löppönen, Ville Löppönen and Henry Wuorila-Stenberg
21 March – 18 May 2025
Silence is often understood in very narrow terms as not speaking or making any sound. However, silence can also open a door to the inner realms of hearing and seeing – to experiencing the potential of forming an interaction, presence and connection with the Other. Silence takes by surprise because it only unfolds byconfronting restlessness and inner noise. Silence is topical.
Manifest of Stillness is a group of artists which has its origin in the visual artist Ville Löppönen’s exploration of silence. Ville Löppönen has brought together five artists for whom silence is at the heart of their process of making art. Silence invites us to a place where there are no words, to the permeability of inner images and experiences. The five artists, Ulla Karttunen, Jukka Korkeila, Anni Löppönen, Ville Löppönen and Henry Wuorila-Stenberg, invite us to confront silence. The silence these artists face when they work. Through silence emerges the miracle revealed in the finished piece.
The exhibition was produced with support from the Finnish Heritage Agency.
2024
Hanging image from the Tumpkin’s Time exhibition at Päivälehti Museum (now The Media Museum and Archives Merkki), 2022. Photo: © Ida Pimenoff.
Tumpkin’s Time
12 October 2024 – 2 March 2025
2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kirsi Kunnas (1924–2021), a beloved poet, children’s author, translator and academician. Artist Alexander Reichstein has created the three-dimensional exhibition Tumpkin’s Time based on Kunnas’ nursery rhymes, bringing the captivating characters to Mikkeli Art Museum. In the exhibition, the main characters of her poems take visitors on an adventure under the canopy of the Wonder Tree full of surprises and hidden details from Kunnas’s poems. The original illustrations deepen the exhibition experience. Different generation can recognize their eras in them.
When it was first published in 1956, Tiitiäisen satupuu (Tumpkin’s Wonder Tree) book of nursery rhymes reformed Finnish children’s poetry and rhymes. The poems, which focus on the world of children, inspired the poet to continue working on the subject until 2020, when she published a collection of poems entitled Tiitiäisen metsä (Tumpkin’s Forest). The poems brimming with humour, playfulness and verbal revelry are accompanied by illustrations of some of the best Finnish illustrators of their time – Maija Karma, Julia Vuori, Kristiina Louhi, Christel Rönns, Pia Westerholm and Silja-Maria Wihersaari.
The Tumpkin’s Time exhibition was originally produced by Päivälehti Museum (now known as Merkki, the Media Museum and Archives). The exhibition has also been displayed in the Moomin Museum. The collection of illustrations, first presented there was curated by producer Minna Honkasalo.
Heikki Willamo, Näätä, 2022, digital inkjet print. Photo: Heikki Willamo, © Kuvasto 2024.
Heikki Willamo – In the Arms of the Forest
8 June – 22 September 2024
The photographic artist, nature photographer and writer Heikki Willamo’s work focuses on nature, especially forests and its animals. In Willamo’s photographs, nature reveals itself as diverse and ancient, even mythical. Willamo has held numerous exhibitions in Finland and abroad and published many books.
Heikki Willamo has photographed forests for more than three decades. In that time, many old forests have been lost forever. The importance of nature images in evoking the relationship between nature and humans is more relevant now than ever. Willamo is looking for new forms of sustainable coexistence through photographic art. Nature photography often carries the burden of documentary photography, but in Willamo’s expression, the almost dreamlike and stylised presentation of forests and its inhabitants conveys lived experience. His artworks show what we will lose if we do not take action.
The exhibition at Mikkeli Art Museum will feature the artist’s new and older works as well as artworks based on moving image. The exhibition is curated by photo graphic artists Marko Hämäläinen and Harri Heinonen.
Kari Juutilainen, Näkymä, 2022, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Kari Juutilainen, © Kuvasto.
Discover – Kari Juutilainen
10 February – 26 May 2024
Kuopio-based Kari Juutilainen’s acrylic paintings from the last five years. The exhibition highlights the importance of the painting process in the creation of an artwork.
”Making art begins when an idea starts to take shape, grow and develop into an artwork. When portraying an invisible world which is hard to describe, visual thinking offers access to an area that words may not reach.” The Discover exhibition features mainly Juutilainen’s new work which is characterised by organic and geometric layered structures and the interplay of chaos and order.
Kari Juutilainen, originally from Pieksämäki, is a prolific and versatile visual artist who has held over 30 solo and more than 100 group exhibitions during his 40-year career. His work includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, music, videos, performances as well as spatial audio productions. Juutilainen is a member of the Finnish Painters’ Union, the Kuopio Artists’ Association, Dimensio ry and the Finnish Critics’ Association.