Art Exhibitions
Lassie Suddenly Started Laughing – Collections of the OP Pohjola Art Foundation
Opening on May 1st 2026
The summer exhibition at Söderlångvik Museum presents approximately sixty works from the distinguished collection of the OP Pohjola Art Foundation. The exhibition includes paintings and sculptures by key Finnish artists from the 1970s to the present day.
The exhibition occupies five galleries on the ground floor of the museum. The remaining galleries feature a selection of works from the Amos Anderson Fund’s own collections.
Participating artists include, among others: Juhana Blomstedt, Marjatta Hanhijoki, Unto Koistinen, Matti Kujasalo, Marjukka Paunila, Mari Rantanen, Katarina Reuter, Ann Sundholm, Kain Tapper, Minna Tuominen and Miina Äkkijyrkkä.
Photo: Kaj Martin
Photo: Kaj Martin
Past exhibitions
Moss Giants & Waking dreams and other stories
May 2nd – December 14th 2025
Preparations for the exhibition began in 2023, when a suitable forest was sought for the four giant moss children to settle in after being displayed in the city centre of Lille in France during its art festival in 2022. After spending a summer in Helsinki’s Lasipalatsi Square, they have finally returned to their natural habitat, where they remain and, in time, become covered with real moss. Overjoyed to see the forest again, they sing their song four times a day: at sunrise, noon, 3 p.m. and sunset. The wondrously peculiar music is composed by Perttu Haapanen. Read more about the Moss Giants.
As you entered the museum, you were greeted by a pitch-black slumbering giant named Waking Dream, seated atop an old Gothic table. She set the tone for how effortlessly the many sculptures found their place in the manor’s various halls and rooms. The artist has created small stories for every piece, where a child’s gaze, imagination and our relationship with nature are often the key themes.
Children and animals have long been central to Kim Simonsson’s work, and this exhibition is no exception. Most of the sculptures depicts children exploring the manor on their own terms: some cutting their hair, some finding hideaways beneath a pool table or in a nest made of cabbage leaves, while others have settled onto a bed or perched themselves on a mantelpiece.
Many of them seemed tailor-made for the atmosphere at Söderlångvik Museum, with gilded and bronze-like surfaces or aesthetics inspired by ancient Rome. Others stood out as striking, bright green contrasts or shifted the mood of the rooms around them. The dining room took on a slightly ominous feel with the matte black silhouette-like sculptures lined up on its long table, and the four children in the chauffeur’s room created a rather eerie presence with their pitch-black stares.
Exhibition in the restaurant
Niclas Warius: Vanitas Chimitoensis
The series Vanitas Chimitoensis came about when photographer Niclas Warius (b. 1972) searched for the soul of businessman and art patron Amos Anderson (1878-1961) at his former summer residence Söderlångvik in the autumn of 2018. The place, which had recently closed its doors for a three-year renovation, was in many ways in a poor and worn condition. Warius rummaged through the building from attic to basement looking for signs and clues, objects and moods for his still lifes. The artist’s imagination combined with the environment of Söderlångvik to create captivating and enigmatic works that, instead of luxurious facades, depict something bizarre and twisted. The mood of the images is calm, melancholic and nostalgic, time seems to stand still. We don’t really know which decade we are in.
The series of symbolic still lifes is one of Niclas Warius’ extensive production with a vanitas theme that has been shown in many exhibitions in Finland and Sweden. Vanitas paintings deal with the transience of worldly wealth and were popular especially in the Netherlands in the 17th century.
Niclas Warius’ exhibition Vanitas Chimitoensis is shown at the restaurant at Söderlångvik since the summer of 2019.
