2026 at HAM: The power of painting, visionary women and renewed spaces

In 2026, HAM will present international top artists and highlight the classics and current figures in Finnish art. The programme centres on strong themes, featuring the Jansson family’s courage, colour storms by Petri Ala-Maunus and Mauno Markkula exploring the landscape, and three strong female artists. HAM’s vast arched halls will be filled in turn with the massive textile-based installations by the Polish icon of sculpture Magdalena Abakanowicz, visual artist Leena Luostarinen’s golden period works and British artist Emma Talbot’s large-scale spatial paintings and textile sculptures. During the year, HAM will also renew its premises at Tennis Palace.

The end-of-year 2025 programme fills the grand arched halls with new exhibitions

Ars Fennica is one of the most significant visual arts prizes in the Nordic countries. The candidates for the €50,000 prize are Ragna Bley, Roland Persson, Jani Ruscica and Hanna Vihriälä. The candidates’ works will be showcased in HAM’s vast arched hall, and the audience can vote for their favourite. The winner will be chosen by the director of the Mori Art Museum, Mami Kataoka. The prize is awarded by the Henna and Pertti Niemistö Art Foundation – ARS FENNICA sr. The exhibition will be open from 24 October 2025 to 29 March 2026.

The Marguerite Humeau: Torches exhibition transforms one of HAM’s arched halls into an unprecedented form. The exhibition marks the Finnish debut of the French artist currently gaining strong international recognition. Her organic sculptural works, made from alabaster, cyanobacteria, and beeswax, to mention a few materials, are brought to life through light and sound. The exhibition will be open from 21 November 2025 to 15 March 2026.

On the ticketing level of HAM, the Free Art School’s 90th anniversary exhibition Free 90 will continue alongside the family-friendly Tove Jansson presentation that explores not only the beloved frescoes but also a mural created for the Taikurinhattu kindergarten in Pori. HAM gallery is currently presenting Emma Luukkala’s Night Wash, following Inari Sandell’s exhibition.

Year 2026 – Courage, renewed spaces and the power of painting and textile art

HAM’s spaces are being renewed at the beginning of 2026 with a dedicated area for showcasing HAM’s collection, an expanded Tove Jansson gallery and the new Space for New Art solutions. Art still matters more than the walls around it – and now it can be presented in new ways.

Spring and summer 2026

The new permanent Tove Jansson gallery at HAM will be opened on 13 February 2026. Now with greater ambition, the expanded collection of works highlights various aspects of Tove Jansson’s artistry through annually changing themes. Inspired by Tove Jansson’s book Comet in Moominland, the gallery’s first exhibition will explore the theme of courage and present works by the entire Jansson artist family. The exhibition will be open from 13 February 2026 to 24 January 2027.

The artistry and works of Petri Ala-Maunus and Mauno Markkula will enter into dialogue in the exhibition opening HAM’s new collection space beginning on 13 March 2026. The visitors will experience colour storms and an immersion into flaming landscapes as Ala-Maunus’s highly romantic landscapes meet Markkula’s expressive visions. The exhibition will feature previously unseen works from both artists and will be open from 13 March 2026 to 31 January 2027.

The Polish icon of sculpture, Magdalena Abakanowicz, will make her large-scale debut in Finland starting 6 May 2026 as her organic textile sculptures fill HAM’s grand arched halls in all their height and breadth. Renowned as a pioneer in creating fibre-based sculptures and installations, Abakanowizc’s impressive “Abakans” will dominate the exhibition space with a striking presence. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Warsaw-based Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation and will be open from 6 May 2026 to 30 August 2026.

In June, HAM will complete its third redesign of the exhibition spaces, and the Space for New Art will begin operations. The Space for New Art continues HAM Gallery’s legacy as a platform for versatile art-making and innovative exhibition concepts. The space offers HAM audiences fascinating encounters with art and artists – engaging body and mind.

The first open call in spring 2025 focused on proposals that enliven exhibition with performative elements and engage audiences through participatory approaches. The KOKIMO collective, Antti Tolvi and the artist duo MSL (Antti Jussila and Jade Kallio) were selected. In June 2026, visitors will experience KOKIMO’s Tablespace, an aesthetic and living installation set around a dining table.

Autumn and winter 2026

HAM’s 2026 programme will conclude with new exhitions in its grand arched halls: only a partition wall will separate Leena Luostarinen’s golden period works from the British artist Emma Talbot’s massive silk paintings, three-dimensional textile works, drawings and animations.

HAM’s collection includes a significant number of Leena Luostarinen’s golden period works, and now, for the first time, they will be seen as a single display. Resting wild cats, references to various cultures and personal messages permeate her large-scale, vibrantly coloured pieces. Radiating the power of the brushwork, the exhibition will be open from 16 October 2026 to 4 April 2027.

British artist Emma Talbot will fill HAM’s vast arched hall with radiant colours, flowing patterns and poetic handwritten texts. Talbot’s first solo exhibition in Finland invites viewers into layered, dream-like worlds. Exploring the mysteries of the universe and our place in perpetual change, the exhibition will be open from 16 October 2026 to 4 April 2027.

Exhibitions opening in 2026:

• Tove Jansson Gallery 13 Feb 2026 – 24 Jan 2027
• Petri Ala-Maunus and Mauno Markkula 13 Mar 2026 – 31 Jan 2027
• Magdalena Abakanowizc 6 May 2026 – 30 Aug 2026
• Space for New Art: Kokimo: Tablespace Jun–Aug 2026
• Leena Luostarinen 16 Oct 2026 – 4 Apr 2027
• Emma Talbot 16 Oct 2026 – 4 Apr 2027
• Space for New Art: Antti Tolvi Oct 2026 – Jan 2027

Exhibitions continuing from 2025:

• Bambi Forever! until 26 Oct 2025
• HAM gallery: Emma Luukkala: Night Wash until 9 Nov 2025
• Vapaa 90 until 4 Jan 2026
• Tove Jansson: Freskot ja Taikurinhattu until 4 Jan 2026
• Ars Fennica  2025 24 Oct 2025 – 29 Mar 2026 
• HAM gallery: Inari Sandell 15 Nov 2025 – 11 Jan 2026
• Marguerite Humeaau: Torches 21 Nov 2025 – 15 Mar 2026