10 Top Art Galleries in Helsinki

Galerie Anhava

One of Helsinki’s foremost contemporary art spaces, Galerie Anhava was founded in 1991 and has since established itself as a leading gallery on the international art scene, regularly participating in art fairs including Art Basel, Madrid’s ARCO, and Art Forum Berlin. The gallery exhibits all mediums of contemporary art, from painting to photography and from sculpture to video art, but with a particular emphasis on contemporary Finnish and Nordic conceptual artists. Galerie Anhava gave the internationally acclaimed Finnish artist Antti Laitinen – whose work is a mix of performance and installation documented in photos and videos – his first retrospective and has exhibited works by Finnish painter Jorma Hautala, one of the country’s most prominent artists of the concretist style.

Galerie Anhava, Sanomatalo, Mannerheiminaukio 3, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 669 989

Focusing on exhibiting and boosting the profile of both well-known mid-career artists and promising, young Finnish talents, Galleria Heino was founded in 2002 and is overseen by director Rauli Heino. Based in the heart of Helsinki, the gallery presents a range of group shows and solo exhibitions in many contemporary mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, and the moving image. It regularly takes part in renowned art fairs across the world to further its artists. Recently exhibited artists include Tampere-based photographer Marja Pirilä, whose work is included in the collections of the Finnish Museum of Photography and who employs a camera obscura to project natural outdoor scenes onto interior spaces to create her stunning images, and Helsinki-based painter and cartoonist Bo Haglund who creates abstract and eerily apocalyptic canvasses.

Myymälä2

Myymälä2 is a non-profit, artist-run alternative space that was established in 2003 with the mission of providing an affordable and easily accessible way for lesser-known artists to exhibit their works. The gallery, which is located in a basement space in the stylish Punavuori neighborhood, presents exhibitions that focus primarily on up-and-coming home-grown talents demonstrating the diversity of Finland’s contemporary art scene. Recently, the gallery gave artist Sini Kelaranta – who painstakingly handcrafts cross-stitched works based on the saturated imagery of modern media – her first solo exhibition and also presented photographer Iina Esko’s show Undays – a series of portraits taken of people after a sleepless night of revelry.

Myymälä2, Uudenmaankatu 23F, Helsinki, Finland, +358 400 101 407

Korjaamo Galleria

Part of the Korjaamo Culture Factory, which is one of the largest centers for the arts in the Nordic region and hosts musical and theatrical events, the Korjaamo Galleria was founded in in 2004. The gallery presents exhibitions that change on a monthly basis and centers upon inspiring works of contemporary art by artists from Finland and overseas who work in various fields and disciplines. Currently, Korjaamo Galleria is focusing on building its repertoire of Finnish, Nordic, and Baltic artists, promoting them both within Finland and internationally. These artists include the young, talented painter Sami Havia, a recent graduate of Helsinki’s Finnish Academy of Fine Arts who works within the disciplines of abstract expressionism and intuitive painting, and Mikko Rikala, a mesmerizing photographer.

Korjaamo Galleria, Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamo, Töölönkatu 51A-B, Helsinki, Finland, +358 20 741 7000

Sinne

Overseen by the Pro Artibus Foundation, an independent cultural organization established to promote the visual arts in the Swedish-speaking regions of Finland, Sinne exhibits works by Finnish and international artists, with a particular focus on young, emerging artists who produce experimental artworks. Sinne’s main mission is to nurture future artistic talents while providing a space in which art can be discussed and debated. The gallery presents a program of group shows and individual exhibitions which have recently included Suomen Paviljonki, or The Finnish Pavilion, a tongue-in-cheek video from Finnish artists Kimmo Modig and Jaakko Pallasvuo looking at Finland’s relationship with the international art world, and sculptural and installation artist Sari Palosaari’s Visibility, a series of sculptures inspired by cityscapes and urban life.

Sinne, Iso Roobertinkatu 16, Helsinki, Finland, +358 45 883 3716

Valokuvagalleria Hippolyte

Valokuvagalleria Hippolyte, one of Helsinki’s leading galleries dedicated to contemporary photography, was founded in 1978 to address the near-absence of venues exhibiting and promoting Finnish photography. The gallery, which has presented more than 200 exhibitions over the course of its operations, is overseen by the Union of Artist Photographers in Finland, which also organizes the Helsinki Photography Biennial. Valokuvagalleria Hippolyte has recently presented shows by talents such as Finnish artist Juha Arvid Helminen, whose ominous portrait photography explores how uniforms – whether political, religious or otherwise – can create boundaries and difference, and the Norwegian artist Morten Torgersrud, whose photography documents the changing landscapes of northern Finland, Sweden and Norway and northwestern Russia.

Valokuvagalleria Hippolyte, Yrjönkatu 8 – 10, Helsinki, Finland, +358 9 612 3344

Forum Box

Forum Box is an artist-run cooperative that was originally conceived of in 1996 by the late, great sculptor Kain Tapper – one of Finland’s best-known artists – as a means of enriching the country’s cultural life. The gallery officially opened its doors in 1999 in a space designed by esteemed Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa that formerly acted as a cold storage room, and today operates an inclusive policy that allows art of all forms to be exhibited by both Finnish and international artists at any stage in their career. In the past year, Forum Box has exhibited works by talents such as Baghdad-born, Helsinki-based multimedia artist Adel Abidin, whose work examines identity, politics, and power relations, and British-Finnish video artist Emilia Ukkonen, whose art often incorporates a wry look at contemporary culture.

Forum Box, Ruoholahdenranta 3A, Helsinki, Finland, +358 96 855 0080