KIASMA

Invitation to media: Press conference for Emma Ainala's exhibition Like a Prayer on 8 October at Kiasma

17.9.2026 09:30:32 EEST | KIASMA | Press invitation

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Like a Prayer shows Emma Ainala’s artworks from the last ten years. Welcome to the press conference at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma on Thursday 8 October 2026. Please register: kiira.koskela@kiasma.fi

Emma Ainala, High Maintenance, 2026.
Emma Ainala, High Maintenance, 2026. Photo: Johannes Ekholm

The press conference starts at 11:00. Before that, media representatives have the opportunity to explore the exhibition from 10:00. The exhibition will be open for preview until 12:00.

The artist and the curator will be present at the conference.

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.

In Emma Ainala’s art women push against their allotted roles

In her oil paintings Emma Ainala opens up a seductive, chaotic world to the viewer, a world where Barbie can be a Messiah and Ophelia can drown in a sofa instead of a river. The main characters in her art are often girls and women who linger amid luxuriant nature and in claustrophobia-inducing rooms. Some of them have turned into spiders or snakes, one has been given a sphinx’s features, and others those of a centaur. The women are comparable to pet animals and blend into the décor of their boudoirs, but they also glow bright in the darkness.

Emma Ainala: Like a Prayer
9.10.2026-14.2.2027, Kiasma

Keywords

Contacts

Kiira Koskela, Communications Officer, kiira.koskela@kiasma.fi, +358 294 500 631

Images may be used for editorial coverage of the exhibition.

Images

Emma Ainala, High Maintenance, 2026.
Emma Ainala, High Maintenance, 2026.
Photo: Johannes Ekholm
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Emma Ainala.
Emma Ainala.
Photo: Johannes Ekholm
Download

Links

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma
Mannerheiminaukio 2,
FIN-00100
Helsinki, Finland

The Finnish National Gallery is the national museum of fine arts. It operates three of Finland’s best-known museums: the Ateneum Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum. It also manages the national art collection and its archives, develops Finnish cultural heritage and promotes art to the wider public. www.kansallisgalleria.fi/en

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