Now

Over the Water

22.10.2025-22.3.2026

Kunsthalle Meilahti

Tue-Sun 11–18

Tamminiementie 6
00250 Helsinki

More information on the exhibition

www.pekka-ala-pietila.photography
Kunsthalle Meilahti
www.nannasusi.fi

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Nanna Susi’s upcoming exhibition Over the Water presents roughly sixty paintings, many of which are previously unseen works from 2025. The exhibition is marking a historic closure, as Susi was originally supposed to hold a retrospective at Meilahti Manor in 2012, but the museum closed its doors and Susi instead premiered her new paintings from 2012-2013 in a replacement show at HAM Helsinki Art Museum.

“This is a familiar and beloved space, definitely the most beautiful exhibition space in Helsinki. I am also delighted to have this opportunity to present my paintings alongside photographs by Pekka Ala-Pietilä. He has made career as a business manager in technology companies, but Pekka’s photographs have also won awards in international competitions. Pekka and I both come from Asikkala, We share a mutual immersion in wonder. Both of us embrace far-sighted vision and a thematic preoccupation with time, eternity, existence, will, limits, and beauty. I believe creativity is ultimately about making thoughts and feelings visible.”

Over the Water

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. Blustery winds blow, sometimes it’s cold, sometimes it’s hot. Mountains call to be climbed. Angels offer comfort and guidance. Tears fill the sea, hearts beat. And in the midst of it all, there is peace. Paradise could be here – today, now.

Anchor to the Unknown

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.

They say a person cannot be in two places at once, yet we all know this is not quite true.
Our minds and hearts are always on a journey around the world, constantly moving, not only around the sun but also towards the light.

Ferry of Thoughts and Senses

The challenge of creating art is to make the invisible visible.

Our senses grasp laughter, tears, and fleeting moments of ecstasy as the autumn wind sweeps across our faces. But where does that faint smell of smoke drift from? A dog barks, even before the silence breaks. Another person’s hand is real and true. Looking into someone’s eyes is the most important moment of the day. Tears taste salty, chocolate melts in your mouth.

Painting is the sixth sense. Painting is a place where senses and thinking mixintermingle. A humble vessel, it carries formless shapes, trembling ideas, sparkling epiphanies, dizzying emotions, and coloured light from one shore to the next – and back again. There is not always a fixed destination – you may not always find your way home. Yet there is always a horizon, a line that preserves balance.

Looking afar clarifies the mind

The horizon is the longest bridge in the world. It connects us all. That bridge is an idea, and we pace toward it along the tightrope of our eyes. Just as earth and sky remain distinct, we orient ourselves in relation to the horizon – forever on the other side.

Each of us is the epicentre of our own lives. We are, in a way, bound by gravity, yet all around us stretches the horizon.

It does us good to look as far as the eye can reach. Looking afar clarifies feelings and thoughts. Between these points lie consciousness, memory, and future. Pain and happiness. And in my case, paintings too.

When you look long enough, and far enough, at some point you will come across the angels.

Nanna Susi

JOY AND ASYMMETRY

Curated by Nanna Susi

Me Wherever / Kari Cavén
The Nightingale / Hanna Westerberg
Usher / Paavo Halonen
Hey ho, to and fro / Liivia Sirola
Noctural Encounters / Minja Karoliina Laakso
Beneath the Surface / 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, 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

SU(d) a Nord

29.10.–30.11.2025
Mar–Sab 16–19

Mostra collettiva
Nanna Susi (Finlandia) e Maurizio Savini (Italia)
A cura di Riikka Vainio

SUarte Gallery
Via della Pozzetto 118
Roma, Italia

Un incontro tra Nord e Sud, tra spiritualità quotidiana e visione ecologica globale. Le opere di Nanna Susi e Maurizio Savini dialogano attraverso la pittura e la scultura, esplorando la bellezza nei gesti ordinari e il legame profondo tra uomo e natura. La mostra ci invita a riflettere sulle connessioni invisibili che uniscono ogni forma di vita.

BAW – Bracciano Art Week
14.-18.5.2025

Contemporary Bloom