Now

All the paintings in my new exhibition at Kunsthalle Meilahti were completed this year, 2025. I am the kind of artist who throws herself completely into her work. In January, I threw myself into this exhibition. I took only one day off all summer. I know, of course, that my way of working makes little sense.

I did not go swimming once all summer, yet somehow I swam a far longer journey. I reached my destination, and now I have come ashore. Kunsthalle Meilahti rests by the sea, and to me, it is the most beautiful exhibition space anywhere in Helsinki. The journey was worth every moment.

My paintings are a love affair with life. An enamoured heart flows through my work. Ravens forage the fields, the sea greets the land, small boats bob upon the waves, bowls overflow with fruits, trees stretch skyward, roses bloom in gardens tended and untended.

It all begins with a blank, white canvas and a fierce need to speak through paint. I project my thoughts, my feelings, my very self onto it. In this way, I explore what cannot be seen. At some point, a shore appears. And then another. And another. My thoughts reach land, my soul is enchanted by the sunrise, my mind casts an anchor into the unknown.

Joy and Asymmetry

Minä missä milloin / Kari Cavén Satakieli / Hanna Westerberg Ovenvartija / Paavo Halonen Heijaa eestaas / Liivia Sirola Yöllisiä kohtaamisia / Minja Karoliina Laakso Pinnan alla / Canal Cheong Jagerroos

We are not perfect. Nor is nature — though it may appear so. In relation to humanity and to its own forces, nature, too, is imperfect. Yet together we form a living ecosystem, one that encompasses thought, speech, and emotion.

We need one another — perhaps now more than ever.

When I sit and wait I welcome their guests — and myself as well. What a strange bench. If I leave here, someone will fall from there.

– Mirkka Rekola, from the poetry collection Joy and Asymmetry, 1965

Art can be understood as a shared language — one that gives rather than takes. Its diversity reminds us of our common humanity, and of the quiet strength that emerges from it.

This exhibition brings together a wide spectrum of artistic voices. Each contributing artist presents work that is distinctly their own, yet resonates within a larger whole. Together, the works offer inner nourishment — enriched by notes of bread, wine, water, and honey — as well as moments of insight shaped by colour and light. The exhibition takes its title from Mirkka Rekola's inspirational poetry collection Joy and Asymmetry.

Joy and Asymmetry is my first curated extensive group exhibition.

Nanna Susi

A meeting between North and South, at the crossroads of everyday spirituality and a global ecological vision.

The works of Nanna Susi and Maurizio Savini converse through painting and sculpture, exploring beauty in ordinary gestures and the deep bond between humanity and nature. The exhibition invites us to reflect on the invisible connections that unite every living thing.

This exhibition brings together the artists Nanna Susi and Maurizio Savini, both of whom address connection in their work: between people, between the everyday and the spiritual, and between humanity and nature. Their visions complement one another — one approaches the subject through inner stillness and the sacredness of the everyday, the other on the plane of social and ecological reflection.

Nanna Susi's paintings invite us to pause and see beauty in the small moments of daily life. They depict seated women, each holding a string of prayer beads. These works invite reflection on spirituality at the level of the everyday and on how meaningful simple acts can be. In the background, a clothesline, roses and stars weave themselves into warm light, creating an atmosphere where past and future meet intimately.

The prayer bead acts as a symbolic red thread — a carrier of faith, hope and beauty in the midst of ordinary life. In Susi's world, spirituality is never distant; it is tightly bound to feelings and to everyday moments.

Maurizio Savini's art carries the viewer into a different but equally resonant world. His sculptures and installations address ecology, freedom and community — often through poetic and ironic means. In Savini's works, animals and insects are free and independent, never subordinated by humans. They symbolise a nature that retains its dignity even when constrained. The artist reminds us to look beneath the surface — to understand the layered nature of reality and its links to ecological and global questions. Every creative act — even the bee's labour in the hive — is part of a shared, harmonious and meaningful whole.

In both artists' work, the importance of cooperation and shared responsibility comes to the fore. Susi invites us to see the beauty of the spiritual in the everyday; Savini challenges us to look at the world from an ecological and shared perspective. Neither places themselves at the centre: every painting, sculpture or installation is an invitation to reflect on those invisible connections that bind us to one another — and to nature.

As Nanna Susi puts it:

"Consciousness and feelings are an endless construction site. Every moment shapes the foundations of our minds and hearts."

The works of Nanna Susi and Maurizio Savini invite us to find the red thread that connects us to the past, the present and the future. The exhibition is an open construction site for thoughts and feelings — a place where art leads us toward meaning, beauty and hope.

Riikka Vainio, curator of the exhibition