5 February – 22 May 2022

For Obvious Reasons

Ahmed Al-Nawas & Minna L. Henriksson, Elina Juopperi, Jaana Kokko, Raakel Kuukka, Kalle Lampela, Niina Lehtonen Braun, Hanneriina Moisseinen, Marja Ruta, SashaPasha (Sasha & Pavel Rotts), Ossi Somma, Yeboyah (Rebekka Kuukka), Haliz Yosef

The exhibition uses the past as an aid to explore various narratives of visual expression. An important feature is how we need to rely on our memory when it comes to past experiences and how remembering becomes a coping mechanism, both for individuals and communities. The passage of time is not seen as a linear continuum, but as a current in which local and global conditions intertwine. The undertone is determined by Finland's location and the historical events that took place during its independence in the particular geopolitical junction.

11 June – 4 September 2022

Collection exhibition with a capital C

What are art museum collections made of? The Lappeenranta Art Museum collection is not a random bunch of various acquisitions, but it consists of several collections. How did the different collections come about? Why do we have them? What kind of works do they feature? You can take a look at the heart of the museum and see what we do at the Art Museum's summer exhibition. The exhibition presents the different starting points and themes of the collections. The Joutseno collection is an art collection of the former municipality of Joutseno. The focus of the collection, which was donated by Säkkijärvi-born Pertti Ala-Outinen, is on prints by Finnish artists. Lappeenranta Art Museum's own collection mainly focuses on contemporary art created in south-eastern Finland. In addition to the museum's own premises, the works from this collections can be found in various public spaces in the city of Lappeenranta, such as schools. The Art Museum's collections from Vyborg and Karelia include the deposit collections of Viipuri Friends of Art Association (Viipurin Taiteenystävät ry), the Pamaus society and Foundation for Karelian Culture (Karjalaisen Kulttuurin Edistämissäätiö). The latest deposit collection of Lappeenranta Art Museum is the Onni and Helmi Karttunen Foundation collection.

The newest work in the Lappeenranta Art Museum collection is Jonna Kina's video work Four Sculptures in Fifteen Pieces, which won the VIDS21 media art idea competition organised by the museum and will have its Finnish premiere at Lappeenranta Art Museum in summer 2022. The work was commissioned by Lappeenranta Art Museum and produced in collaboration with the Art Museum of Estonia. The VIDS21 media art competition was sponsored by the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation.

24 September 2022 – 15 January 2023

ANNE TOMPURI

Anne Tompuri (b. 1958) is a long-established visual artist, whose main technique is gouache and pigment on canvas. Black and white, that is, darkness and light, alternate in her works. She does point out that without darkness there is no light – life. She also painted large “dress paintings” earlier in her career. In this retrospective exhibition, she returns to the dress theme, but this time in the form of three-dimensional paintings. 

Lappeenranta Art Museum - regional art museum of south-east Finland

Founded in 1965, the Lappeenranta Art Museum initially occupied the same premises as the South Karelia Museum of Cultural History, at the northern tip of the Lappeenranta Fortress. In the 1980s, the Art Museum moved to its present site in the neoclassic-style barracks (built in 1798), opposite the Orthodox Church. In 1986, the Art Museum became the Regional Art Museum of South-East Finland.

The museum is home to a collection of Finnish art from the mid-19th century to the present day. The museum’s largest single collection of old Finnish art was accumulated by Viipurin Taiteenystävät ry (Vyborg Friends of Art); this collection includes works by many well-known artists such as Albert Edelfelt, Pekka Halonen, Tyko Sallinen, Hjalmar Munsterhjelm and Eero Järnefelt. The collection has paintings by artists who were active in Vyborg or were born there. The contemporary art collections on the other hand focus in particular on art from south-east Finland, and include paintings by Leena Luostarinen, Unto Ahjotuli, Anne Tompuri, Irmeli Tarmo, Eeva Vesterinen, Heimo Suntio and Sinikka Kurkinen etc. etc.

Every year, the Art Museum also stages between three and four temporary exhibitions which feature both the latest trends in the world of art and works representing earlier periods in the history of art.

Located next to the reception there is also the museum gift shop which stocks a selection of books, art cards and jewellery.