Salla VartiainenToday we are visiting one of my FAVORITE art museums in the whole world – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, also known as EMMA.
Every time I come here I get wow-d or surprised and not many venues manage to do that! It is very hard to keep producing one interesting exhibition after another without failing.
Emma museum the venue
The museum is located in Espoo outside of Helsinki and the closest subway station is Tapiola. Helsinki only has ONE metro line so you don´t have to worry about getting lost. I arrive here by metro and walk the rest of the way to the museum. There are small signs on the way that tell you that you are on the right track. It takes around 10 minutes to walk here from the metro.
The entrance fee is currently (year 2025)
♥ 20 euro for adults 30-69 years of age
♥ 10 euro for groups eligible for reduced fee, such as humans between 18-29 years of age, people over 70, students, retired etc
♥ and free for kids up to 18 yo.
The museum has its own collections and also temporary exhibitions. They rotate the art in their own collection so every time there is something new to see besides the temporary exhibitions.
Collection Kakkonen exhibition
One of the exhibitions on display this fine morning is a glass and ceramic exhibition called Collection Kakkonen. The exhibition is sprung from businessman Kyösti Kakkonens art collections and focuses on Finnish glass and ceramics. The pieces displayed are mainly from the end of the 19th century up until now.
Birger Kaipiainen
My maximalistic-heart skips a beat when I walk into the exhibition and see this wall with works by Birger Kaipiainen.
Kaipiainen is known for his many works for Arabia ceramics company. I strongly suspect that all Finnish people over the age of 40 have at least one dish or cup from Arabia in their cupboards. Although none of the items I have encountered in my relatives kitchen cabinets have been as colorful as these!
But.. is that Isaac Grünewald on the plate?
There is nothing more that interests me among the remaining ceramics. Being a 80s kid I´m still fed up with the ugly colors of the 70s. All the unwieldy ceramics and rya-rugs (a type of knotted pile carpets that were very popular during this time) makes me slightly nauseous when I think about all the nasty stuff that probably is hiding inside them.
Glass as a magic material
I love glass. It´s such a magic material. The way it can reflect and fracture light, the way it can be totally see through or totally opak. It can be hard as a rock and also immensely fragile.
It is very difficult to work with and you really need to be a master to make this material do what you want. A little bit too much heat and the glass escapes from your pipe and onto the floor. A little bit too cold and it turns into a stone, impossible to mold or affect.
I walk around in the airy exhibition room. The concrete surroundings creates a calm feeling and the pieces are arranged on piedestals, in display cabinets and on shelves on the wall.
Vases, sculptures, wall decorations. Many of Finlands big names are represented here.
I stop to look at Alvar Aaltos iconic mold-blown vases and think about how different the glass looks compared to Nanny Stills wave – a sculpture cast in sand.
Aalto actually means wave in Finnish
Nanny Stills wave
Nanny Still!
I have never heard of Nanny Still, but I find my self drawn to this Finnish designers objects and vases. There is something in her visual language that strikes a chord.
Nanny Still – a new favorite
Oiva Toikka surprises
There is also several works by Oiva Toikka. Toikka is most known for his glass birds, that are absolutely beautiful, but they´ve been around so long that I am as tired of them as of Alvar Aaltos famous vases.
But here Toikka surprises! I mean – who makes a whip out of glass?
Would you like to recieve a beating with these?
So why is he only known for the birds when he has done so many other fun works?
Contemporary glass
There is also a small collection of contemporary Finnish glass.
These cacti by Alma Jantunen reminds me of the cacti of the Swedish glass artist Tillie Burden.
Johannes Rantasalo and one of Alma Jantunens cactuses
Anti-style as a style
It is very trendy to do clumsy ugly things with no refinement. This trend has been going on at least the past 10-15 years. I don´t know if my generation just is so full of ugly things that we need to vomit them out somehow, if we are over-saturated by being the first internet-brought up generation or what kind of anti-style style protest this is. Because anti-style is still a style.
Some of the works like the ceramic works of Jasmin Anoschkin makes me wonder – just because you CAN do something, should you?
Jasmin Anoschkin Vino de Menstruation
Johannes Rantasalo, born 1968, also have some works here that have that anti-style style aura. But it´s VERY difficult to make objects this big in free-blown glass, so at the same time they also showcase technical mastery.
Johannes Rantasalos “Love me”
I leave the exhibition all inspired and head to the café to grab some lunch. Maybe I should try to attend another glass course..
xoxo/Salla V