Kuopio Art Museum

Kuopio Art Museum is the regional art museum of North Savonia. The museum is responsible for visual art services, including exhibitions, research and documentation of visual arts in the area. Art education plays a central role in the museum activities.

The art collections include primarily Finnish art from the end of the 19th century to the present. The art museum continuously displays special exhibitions, mainly Finnish contemporary art: paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and media art. The main themes of the museum’s collections and exhibitions are landscape and nature, as well as the human–environment relationship.

Kuopio Art Museum is the throbbing heart of art in the centre of Kuopio, only a short distance from the Market Place. Kuopio Art Museum has operated since 1980 in an Art Nouveau building originally built as a bank in 1904.

Opening hours

Monday closed, Tuesday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesday 10.a.m.-7 p.m., from Thursday to Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Admission fee

10€ / 6€, free admission for persons under 18.

Exhibitions

Human Images 4.12.2021- 8.5.2022

Depicting human beings is a timeless motif in art. At this exhibition, everyday life filled with work as well as leisure is at the centre. The different perspectives involved in depicting human beings that have been emphasized during different periods, as well as the changes in the ways of depicting, tell us about the changes our society and ways of thinking have undergone. The exhibition on display at the Kuopio Art Museum has been created in cooperation with the Association of Finnish Fine Arts Foundations. Works from the collections of several, major Finnish fine arts foundations will be displayed. Renowned works of the history of Finnish art are displayed, as well as contemporary art.

In the 19th century paintings of Ferdinand von Wright, Berndt Lindholm and Hjalmar Munsterhjelm, humans are, according to the ideals of the Romantic era, placed in a majestic landscape. In the works of Juho Rissanen and Pekka Halonen, who both came from Eastern Finland, humans are portrayed realistically, in the midst of their daily toil. The daily toil is also present in the colourful cubist paintings of Unto Pusa and Gösta Diehl.

Leisure with all its pleasures is present in the works painted according to the ideals of impressionism in which sunny days by the seashore and summer meadows have been perpetuated. In the works we also get a glimpse of everyday domestic life, and in these works, women are often the protagonists. Ellen Thesleff’s portrait of her reading sister, Tove Jansson’s depiction of a woman sitting at a table, Riikka Lenkkeri’s vision of herself in the morning and Joel Slotte’s Convalescent (2019) offer glimpses into the life of women. In addition to paintings and sculptures, works of photo and video art for example by Susanna Majuri and Elina Brotherus are displayed.

The exhibition also deals with sexuality, which is the theme of Viggo Wallensköld’s painting Honour (2009) as well as of Synnöve Rabb’s series of photographic works. Death is also part of life, something that’s shown in Hugo Simberg’s work At the Gate of Tuonela (1898) and Kimmo Schroderus’s work 27 Years in the Art Business (1989-2017) depicting a skeleton.

The fine arts collections of the Association of Finnish Fine Arts Foundations contain thousands of works from the 15th century to the present day. At the exhibition, works belonging to the following fine arts foundations are on display: Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Fortum Art Foundation, Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, OP Art Foundation, Pro Artibus Foundation, Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, Art Foundation Merita, UPM-Kymmene Cultural Foundation and Åbo Akademi University Foundation.

Mikko Valtonen (1968-2019) – At the deep end May 21 to September 18  

For Valtonen, who lived in Varpaisjärvi, visual arts were a lifeline, an essential part of his life and personality. The soft forms, cheerful colours, simplified expression, and humour of the characters in the works made the artist’s production comforting and touching, even though the artist occasionally addressed the tragic features of his own life. The exhibition features paintings, sculptures, and comic art by Mikko Valtonen.

Osmo Monto (1938-2019) – Face to face May 7 to September 18

At the centre of the exhibition of Osmo Monto, born in Iisalmi, are his works of art that want to make a stand. Having experienced wartime, Monto used his art to make the world a more humane place. In February 2022, a war showed its cold face on European soil, affecting our everyday lives. Osmo Monto’s timeless works of art react to current world events and show their strength as an advocate of humanity.

The Artist’s View

The Kuopio Art Museum’s collections exhibition celebrates the museum’s anniversary year. It tells of the history of art in Finland, and of the collections of over 7,000 works managed by the museum. A significant portion of the works are donations from art collectors and organisations. People have collected works of art as a culturally focused pastime, for the love of art, and to support Finnish art. There are also collections that were originally created for the founding of the Kuopio art Museum, which took place in 1980 after decades of planning.

Audio guides

The audio guides provide background information of the paintings exhibited in the collection exhibition called Artist’s view. You may listen to them in the exhibition or separately.

Pekka Halonen: Sandy Shore, 1896