HAM 2025 exhibitions: From easel to alternative worlds

HAM Helsinki Art Museum’s new exhibitions opening in 2025 include the Free Art School’s anniversary exhibition, Free 90, as well as the major art event Helsinki Biennial, the Ars Fennica 2025 group exhibition showcasing the candidates, and a solo exhibition by Marguerite Humeau, a French visual artist gaining international recognition. Additionally, six new exhibitions will be on display at HAM gallery.

Of the exhibitions opened in 2024, Tove Jansson – Paradise and Tori Wrånes: BIG WATER will remain open until April. Providing a comprehensive overview of Maarit and Raimo Huttunen’s collection, the Bambi Forever! exhibition will be updated and remain open until October 2025.

New: Vapaa 90, Helsinki Biennial, Ars Fennica 2025, and Marguerite Humeau

In April, the Free Art School’s anniversary exhibition, Free 90, will open at HAM, celebrating the school’s 90-year history and its significance in the development of Finnish painting and modernism. Presented in loose chronological order, the exhibition’s aim is to find the common thread – the spirit of the school – that binds the school’s nine decades together. The Free 90 exhibition will be on display from 25 April 2025 to 4 January 2026.

The school’s history and the artists who studied and taught there are approached through the donated collection of Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka. The art gallery Taidesalonki, founded by the Bäcksbackas in Helsinki in 1915, showcased many of the artists who studied and taught at the Free Art School during its first decades. The exhibition will include works by Tove Jansson, Sigrid Schauman, Elga Sesemann, Ole Kandelin, Unto Pusa, Rafael Wardi, Torger Enckell, Tor Arne, Carolus Enckell, Jani Hänninen, Mari Sunna, Paavo Paunu, Elina Merenmies, and Erik Creutziger.

Opening in summer 2025, the major contemporary art event Helsinki Biennial will showcase over 30 artists and collectives from Finland and around the world. Roughly half of the featured works will be site-specific new commissions premiering in Helsinki. The upcoming Helsinki Biennial will spread across three distinct venues: the unique maritime setting of Vallisaari Island, Esplanade Park in the heart of Helsinki, and HAM Helsinki Art Museum’s Tennis Palace premises. Helsinki Biennial will be held from 8 June to 21 September 2025.

The theme of the biennial’s third edition, Shelter, takes inspiration from the habitat of Vallisaari Island, which has been preserved from human habitation for decades. The biennial reflects on the fragile relationship between humanity and the natural world. Moving beyond human-centric perspectives, the featured artworks foreground animals, plants, fungi, insects, and minerals. The biennial seeks to forge new spaces of protection and inspire positive environmental action. The full Helsinki Biennial programme and list of artists, artworks, and sponsors will be announced in spring 2025.

In October, a group exhibition showcasing the Ars Fennica 2025 candidates' works will fill one of HAM’s large arched halls. The candidates for Finland’s most significant visual arts prize are Ragna Bley, Roland Persson, Jani Ruscica, and Hanna Vihriälä. The winner will be chosen by Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum and of the National Center for Art Research in Tokyo.

The Ars Fennica 2025 exhibition will be on display at HAM from 24 October 2025 to 15 March 2026. The winner will be announced in the spring of 2026. The public can also vote for their favourite candidate in the exhibition.

HAM’s 2025 programme will conclude with a solo exhibition by Marguerite Humeau (b. 1986), a French-born artist living in London. Her ambitious exhibition unfolds as an imaginative landscape of installations in the large open space of HAM’s grand gallery. Humeau’s organic, sculptural works are brought to life through light and sound. The immersive, multisensorial exhibition marks Humeau’s first presentation in Finland, and it will be on display from 21 November 2025 and continue until 15 March 2026.

Marguerite Humeau uses a wide range of materials in her beautifully detailed works that vary from 150-year-old walnut to hand-blown glass, from alabaster to cyanobacteria, and from beeswax to wasp venom.  In her art, she creates scenarios that spark imaginings of alternative worlds. What if humans would become collective beings, attempting to synchronise with all life forms?

Continuing from 2024: Tori Wrånes – BIG WATER, Tove Jansson – Paradise, and Bambi Forever!

Of the exhibitions opened in 2024, Tove Jansson – Paradise and Tori Wrånes: BIG WATER will remain open until April. A colourful line-up of events will accompany the Tove Jansson – Paradise exhibition in the spring, with the highlight being Paradise Day on 1 March 2025. During Paradise Day, visitors are invited to enjoy talks, performances, music, workshops, and a Hattifattener disco. During the spring, HAM will also host art workshops by Tove Jansson-inspired visual artists, illustrators, and cartoonists as well as solo and group performances by master’s students in acting. Based on songs written by Tove Jansson, concerts by actress and singer Emma Klingenberg will crown the programme of special events.

After the Paradise exhibition closes, selected works will travel to Japan to shed light on Jansson’s work in public art and as the creator of the Moomins. The exhibition will tour nearly ten venues in Japan from summer 2025 onwards. The frescos Party in the Countryside and Party in the City will remain on display at HAM, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Moomins, until the new Tove Jansson gallery opens at the beginning of 2026. The new gallery is designed to celebrate Jansson’s artistic legacy and enhance her lasting contribution to art history and Finnish society. The gallery will present Tove Jansson’s art in a versatile way and provide fresh perspectives on Jansson as an internationally acclaimed artist with a strong Helsinki identity.

Providing a comprehensive overview of Maarit and Raimo Huttunen’s collection, the Bambi Forever! exhibition will remain open until October 2025. The exhibition display will be updated in January 2025, with new featured works including pieces by Outi Heiskanen, Heikki Marila, and Viggo Wallensköld.

Six new exhibitions at HAM gallery

Showcasing current and new contemporary art, HAM gallery will host seven exhibitions in 2025. Taru Happonen’s Taxidermy Surfaces will be on display until 15 January 2025. HAM gallery’s other 2025 artists are Anna Rokka, Laura Böök, Jenni Rahkonen, Liisa Irmelen Liwata, Emma Luukkala, and Inari Sandell.

The City of Helsinki’s public art collection is expanding

The City of Helsinki’s art collection includes more than 10,000 works, of which more than 500 are public artworks created specifically for their location. Of these works, about half are located in the city's semi-public indoor spaces, such as libraries, daycare centres, and schools, and the other half in Helsinki's parks and squares. HAM curates new public artworks for the city and takes care of their maintenance together with the Urban Environment Division.

In the first half of 2025, various new works will be completed around Helsinki: Outi Pieski has created a work for Keski-Pasila Comprehensive School’s façade, Saara Ekström for the yard and interior of Kallio Primary School, Hyäryllistä collective for Taivallahti Comprehensive School, Matias Karsikas for Daycare Sompasaari, and Kimmo Schroderus for the Finlandia Hall’s rooftop terrace. The City of Helsinki’s major investment, Olafur Eliasson’s light installation, connected to the 2025 Helsinki Biennial, will be completed in Kruunuvuorenranta in early summer. Known from the 2023 Helsinki Biennial, the Keiken collective’s work will be relocated in Kalasatama, and the third part of Akseli Leinonen’s body of work will be installed in Jätkäsaari.

The eagle and globe of the city’s oldest public artwork, The Stone of the Empress, are being conserved, and Martti Aiha’s Rumba, which was recently returned to Ruoholahti, will be unveiled once the area’s construction is finished.

More than 2,000 works from HAM’s collection on display in public and semi-public spaces 

HAM has deposited over 2,000 works from its collection in the city's public buildings and semi-public spaces. At the beginning of 2025, the deposit projects of Meilahti Primary School and Vuosaari Upper Secondary School will be completed, bringing not only visual joy but also opportunities for dialogue and learning to the everyday lives of schoolchildren, students, and staff. A body of work for the child welfare unit in Maunula will also be completed early in the year.

The newly renovated Finlandia Hall will open to the public at the beginning of 2025, with around 70 artworks on display around the building. In addition to older works, the walls of Finlandia Hall showcase the latest contemporary art and works spanning the building’s years of existence. Artworks considered classics and connected to the building's history, such as The Swan by Birger Kaipiainen and the bronze relief The Idea – President U.K. Kekkonen by Laila Pullinen, have been brought back to Finlandia Hall’s halls and foyers. Contemporary art includes pieces such as The Archipelago of Yesterday and Tomorrow by EGS and the large, colourful paintings by Heikki Marila and Satu Rautiainen. A painting by Nanna Susi delights visitors in the accommodation facilities, and Kim Simonsson’s ceramic work is on display near the new shop and café in the main lobby. The building also features works by top names in photography, such as Elina Brotherus, Anni Leppälä, Susanna Majuri, and Jorma Puranen.

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The Finnish Heritage Agency has supported Tori Wrånes: BIG WATER and HAM gallery’s 2025 exhibitions.

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Exhibitions opening in 2025:

• HAM gallery: Anna Rokka 24 Jan – 9 Mar 2025
• HAM gallery: Laura Böök 15 Mar – 4 May 2025
• Vapaa 90 25 Apr 2025 – 4 Jan 2026
• Tove Jansson: Party in the Countryside and Party in the City 25 Apr 2025 – 4 Jan 2026
• HAM gallery: Jenni Rahkonen 10 May – 6 Jul 2025
• Helsinki Biennial 8 Jun – 21 Sep 2025
• HAM gallery: Liisa Irmelen Liwata 12 Jul – 7 Sep 2025
• HAM gallery: Emma Luukkala 20 Sep –9 Nov 2025
• Ars Fennica 2025 24 Oct 2025 – 15 Mar 2026 
• Marguerite Humeau 21 Nov 2025 – 15 Mar 2026
• HAM gallery: Inari Sandell 15 Nov 2025 – 11 Jan 2026

Exhibitions continuing from 2024:

• HAM gallery: Taru Happonen: Taxidermy Surfaces until 12 Jan 2025
• Tove Jansson – Paradise until 6 Apr 2025
• Tori Wrånes: BIG WATER until 27 Apr 2025
• Bambi Forever! until 26 Oct 2025