Espoo Museum of Modern Art

EMMA’s exhibition is the first to focus solely on the sculpture of the designer and academician, Tapio Wirkkala and concentrates on his unique light plywood sculptures which have become international symbols of Finnish modernism. The exhibition also presents the artist’s wood, glass and plexi sculptures, wood, metal and ceramic birds, competition sketches for public sculptures and the artist’s drawings.

EMMA’s art collections form the cornerstone of its activities. In addition to the Saastamoinen Foundation Collection, which is permanently on display, EMMA has six other collections which will be shown at the summer exhibition A Look at the EMMA Collections.

Santeri Tuori (b. 1970) is one of the most significant names in Finnish contemporary photography. EMMA will present the artist’s latest work Forest, a photographic and video installation in four parts. The audio-design is the work of Mikko Hynninen.

Enzo Cucchi (b.1949), one of the major representatives of Italian contemporary art, is a self-taught, multi-talented artist; painter, sculptor, poet, writer, set designer and illustrator.

Santeri Tuori (s.1970) on suomalaisen nykyvalokuvauksen merkittäviä nuoria taiteilijoita. EMMAssa nähtävä Tuorin uusin teos Metsä on viidessä osassa esitettävä valokuva- ja videoteoskokonaisuus. Teoksen äänisuunnittelusta vastaa Mikko Hynninen.

Ole Kandelin died of tuberculosis at the early age of 26 but nevertheless lived through an amazing artistic development circle spanning only eight years, In this short time he created artistically significant works, moving from his own individual surrealism to the completely abstract expression of his last years. The exhibition presents an exceptional artist and fighter who was the first Finn to move resolutely towards abstract art.

In the words of an old Chinese proverb "Better a day without food than a day without tea". In China an entire culture has grown up around tea over the centuries and today the country boasts one of the largest selection of teas in the world.

Yang Fudong, born 1971 in Peijing, is amongst the most prominent contemporary Chinese artists specialized in moving image. He began his studies in China Academy of Art studying painting, but soon moved to film. His first film was An Estranged Paradise (1997) that was screened at Kassel Documenta in 2002.

The EMMA – Espoo Museum for Modern Art summer exhibition theme is wood in the hands of the sculptor. It focuses on Finnish wood sculpture from the 1950s to the 2000s. The extensive exhibition assembled by Professor Leena Peltola features 120 works by 23 Finnish sculptors of different ages, each of whom handles the same material in his or her own personal way.

Alongside the wood sculpture exhibition the video installation Drama Queens by the artist couple Michael Elmgreen and Ingvar Dragset is being shown.

Maaria Wirkkala’s latest work As If, a site specific project for EMMA, studies the moment of the pure visual observation and the reflections of light and movement.

Alongside paintings by Claude Monet, the exhibition 12 x Claude Monet and Finnish Impressions at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art presents works by Finnish artists influenced in one way or another by Impressionism.

EMMA concludes its first full year of operation with an extensive Annette Messager exhibition which comes to Finland direct from the Centre Pompidou in Paris where the museum’s 30th anniversary exhibition.

The Salvador Dalí – Surrealist! exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of the art and person of Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). The exhibition presents paintings, drawings and watercolours produced by Salvador Dalí over a period of sixty years. The exhibition presents paintings, drawings and watercolours produced by Salvador Dalí over a period of sixty years. Dalí painted his first Surrealist work at the end of the 1920s.

In summer EMMA's media galleries will feature works of prominent media artists, Salla Tykkä, A K Dolven and Eija-Liisa Ahtila.

The Catalan Antoni Tàpies, is one of the world’s best-known living abstract artists. The 84 year-old artist’s creative force is still powerfully reflected in his painting and in the continuous regeneration in its forms.

Raimo Utriainen is one of the generation of artists who, through their new ideas, forms and materials, had a decisive influence on the advance of sculptural modernism in post-war Finland. From the small, figurative sculptural casts of the 1950s the artist switched at the beginning of the 1960s to cubist stylised sculptures and constructivist bronze and concrete works as well as to works welded from iron rods.

Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky are New York based artists who work in various media. Through the moving image they have pursued an inquiry into the perception of time and place. By integrating the point of view of the camera and the play of time, they have created a dialectical process through which the viewer engages in active looking and creates meaning out of moving images.

Timo Kelaranta is a 55-year old Espoo artist whose photographic work has been exhibited since the mid-1970s. Kelaranta’s works are in several collections including those of the City of Espoo, Kiasma, Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Biblothèque Nationale in Paris. Kelaranta was Professor of Photography at the Helsinki University of Art and Design in 1992-94 and 1999-2001.

The central theme of Shiran Neshat’s work is Islam and the position of women in Islamic society. In her art she treats serious issues, which in the diaspora an artist living between two cultures confronts – exile, repression, the role and identity of women.

Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) was a major art reformer and theorist of the 20th century and the developer of geometric abstractism. Malevich was born near Kiev, but at the beginning of the 20th century, moved to Moscow, then in the throes of violent upheaval, where he soon became the leader of the Russian avant-garde. Like other artists Malevich was interested in the new trends in continental art, initially in Symbolism, Neo-Impressionism, later in Fauvism- and Expressionism-inspired Primitivism and finally, at the beginning of the 1910s, in Futurism, Cubism and Cubo-Futurism.

Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) was a major art reformer and theorist of the 20th century and the developer of geometric abstractism. Malevich was born near Kiev, but at the beginning of the 20th century, moved to Moscow, then in the throes of violent upheaval, where he soon became the leader of the Russian avant-garde.

The Knave of Diamonds was an avant-garde artist group founded in Russia in 1910. The birth of the group was linked with Primitivism which emerged in western art at the beginning of the 20th century from which a new dynamism was sought for art. At that time Russia too displayed a strong interest in foreign cultures. However, Russian avant-garde artists also began to seek their inspiration closer to home, in Russian folk culture as a counter-measure to western Modernism.