Welcome to the press conference for the exhibitions by Sarah Lucas and Essi Kuokkanen on Wednesday, October 8, at Kiasma

The press conference starts at 11:00 (5th floor). Before that, media representatives are welcome to explore the exhibitions from 10:00. The exhibitions will be open for preview until 13:00. The artists and curators will be present at the conference.

Sarah Lucas's exhibition is on view on the 5th floor and Essi Kuokkanen's on the 4th floor of Kiasma.

More information: Communications Officer Kiira Koskela, kiira.koskela@kiasma.fi, +358 50 4786 861

Arrival: The doors of the museum open at 10:00. The address is Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki.

Sarah Lucas: NAKED EYE

Sarah Lucas (b. 1962) is an influential and internationally acclaimed artist known for her irreverent and provocative use of satire in her sculptural practice. Her forthcoming exhibition at Kiasma offers a comprehensive overview of her career to date, showcasing sculpture, photography, and installations from the past four decades—including new and recent works—many of which have featured in celebrated exhibitions around the world. This marks Lucas’s first extensive solo presentation in the Nordic region. 

Lucas works with everyday ‘readymade’ materials—furniture, food, cigarettes, and pantyhose—reassembling them in compositions that evoke the human body in all its fragility with desirousness, humour, and eroticism. 

Lucas’s practice critically engages with unspoken assumptions surrounding gender, sexuality, and power dynamics. Her work questions societal perceptions of the body, while also probing traditional depictions of class and the complex relationship between art and social hierarchy. 

NAKED EYE has been curated by Kiasma’s Patrik Nyberg and Max Hannus. The exhibition will be open to the public from October 10, 2025, to March 8, 2026.

Essi Kuokkanen: Holding a Cloud

Essi Kuokkanen (b. 1991) lends shape to emotions and experiences that stir quietly beneath the surface. In her works, uncertainty crouches behind a fragile shell; spiders spinning their webs evoke the relentless passage of time; and other people appear elusive, like translucent ghosts. Beneath the inviting surfaces of her paintings runs a muted undercurrent of melancholy and solitude. 

Many of the works in the exhibition revolve around themes of growth and transformation. Like in a fable, Kuokkanen reflects on what it means to be human by drawing parallels with other life forms. Dogs appear as recurring figures—creatures bound to the rules and rituals of human life, whether by choice or not. Her more recent works celebrate birds as beings free to follow their own logic, untethered by the rules of human existence. 

Holding a Cloud is curated by Max Hannus and Piia Oksanen from Kiasma. The exhibition will be open to the public from October 10, 2025, to Ferbruary 22, 2026.