EMMA opens the long-awaited retrospective of Howard Smith

Born in New Jersey, Howard Smith arrived in Finland in the early 1960s for what was intended to be a short visit. Instead, he made the country his home. Throughout a career spanning five decades, Smith was driven by curiosity and a constant openness to experimentation. He moved seamlessly between art and design, from intimate works on paper to large-scale commissions for urban spaces, approaching each new material as an opportunity to explore its possibilities. While generations of Finns have encountered his work in their homes and everyday surroundings, the artist behind these familiar designs remains less widely known.

“What makes Howard Smith such a compelling artist is the way he allowed ideas to move freely from one medium to another. A motif might begin as a papercut before reappearing in printed fabric, ceramics or a large-scale plywood cut-out. Bringing these works together reveals not only the extraordinary range of his work, but also the coherence of his artistic vision,” says exhibition curator Tuomas Laulainen.

Works on paper were central to Smith’s artistic practice. His papercuts became a testing ground for ideas, while serigraphy allowed him to bring his art to wider audiences. Over the decades, he developed a distinctive visual language defined by bold colours and recurring motifs, including playful abstract forms as well as faces, eyes and fragments of text. Alongside these works, the exhibition presents ceramics, textile art, sculpture and rarely seen paintings and collages, showing how Smith’s ideas evolved across different materials throughout his career.

As an African American artist who built his life and career in Finland, Smith occupies a unique place in Finnish art and design history. His work broadens our understanding of Finnish modernism while reflecting the cultural exchange that has shaped the country’s artistic landscape. Works from the Africa series, created during his brief return to the United States in the late 1970s, reflect his renewed engagement with African American culture and the visual language of the African diaspora, opening new perspectives on identity, belonging, cultural exchange and representation.

The exhibition also features newly commissioned works by artist Sasha Huber (b. 1975) and fashion designer Ervin Latimer (b. 1988), placing Smith’s legacy in dialogue with contemporary artistic practice. Presented as part of EMMA’s 20th anniversary programme, the retrospective reflects the museum’s commitment to broadening perspectives on Finnish art and design history and bringing renewed attention to artists whose work continues to resonate today. 

Howard Smith: Retrospective (1965–2010) is on view at EMMA from 5 September 2026 to 7 February 2027. The exhibition is curated by Tuomas Laulainen and Mariia Niskavaara. Howard Smith’s fabrics are also on display in EMMA’s Draped – Art of Printed Fabrics  until 1 November 2026.

Exhibition Opening 

Friday 4 September at 6–9 pm 
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art
More info 
Warmly welcome! 

Video Portrait of Howard Smith

An EMMA-produced video portrait of Howard Smith, including archival footage and an interview with his wife Erna Aaltonen, will be on view at the exhibition and on the EMMA Zone website.