Exploring the Wilderness
21.5.2026–2.1.2027
This exhibition takes the visitors to the shady forests, wetlands and shores of the wilderness where hunters and trekkers roam. Covering the different seasons of the year, the exhibition features beloved avian paintings, nature subjects from the golden age of Finnish art as well as more recent artworks.
The artists have immortalised their observations on nature and fauna, people in wilderness settings and hunting-related subjects. For some, the uninhabited wilderness has served as inspiration and a natural environment worth cherishing, whereas others have given rather more symbolic meanings to subjects related to nature, animals and trekking in the wild.
The exhibition showcases works from over twenty artists, among them Ferdinand von Wright, Matti Karppanen, Wilho Sjöström, Pekka Halonen, Eemil Halonen, Jussi Mäntynen, Väinö Rouvinen, Virpi Vanas, Taru Mäntynen, Kaisa Törmänen and Samuli Heimonen.
The exhibition theme is exceptionally topical: Lapinlahti made national media headlines in 2024, when the police communicated a series of hunting crimes committed within the municipality, comprising dozens of separate incidences of poaching involving over 30 suspects in all. The case reached unprecedented proportions for this type of crime in Finland. From a local standpoint, it was a controversial sequence of events, bordering on the traumatic. But in the current themed exhibition, the topic is approached from an artistic vantage point in the spirit of open discussion.
The exhibition has been subsidised by the Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts Eemil and Lapinlahti Municipality.