HELSINKI.- We all experience moments when we need support and encouragement—when doors close, or dreams drift just out of reach. In Holding a Cloud, Essi Kuokkanen reflects on what it means to be human—and how we coexist with other life on Earth. Her exhibition of paintings and drawings opens at Kiasma on October 10, 2025.
Essi Kuokkanen lends shape to emotions and experiences that stir quietly beneath the surface. In her works, uncertainty crouches behind a fragile shell; spiders spinning their webs evoke the relentless passage of time; and other people appear elusive, like translucent ghosts. Beneath the inviting surfaces of her paintings runs a muted undercurrent of melancholy and solitude.
Many of the works in the exhibition revolve around themes of growth and transformation. Like in a fable, Kuokkanen reflects on what it means to be human by drawing parallels with other life forms. Dogs appear as recurring figures—creatures bound to the rules and rituals of human life, whether by choice or not. Her more recent works celebrate birds as beings free to follow their own logic, untethered by the rules of human existence.
The oldest works in the exhibition date from 2018, while the most recent were completed this year.
“I find myself returning to certain themes and figures again and again. Collectively, my paintings form a self-contained world where conflicting emotions and meanings coexist,” says Kuokkanen. “There are references to the lived environment and art history, but even familiar things often appear distorted. A painting can express a unique, individual experience of existence—capturing the wonder and strangeness of everything that surrounds us.”
Holding a Cloud is curated by Max Hannus and Piia Oksanen from Kiasma.
Essi Kuokkanen (b. 1991, Pieksämäki) is a visual artist based in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as the Turku Art Museum, Rovaniemi Art Museum (Korundi House of Culture), EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, and Galerie Anhava. In 2022, her work was featured in ARS22, a major contemporary art exhibition hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. Kuokkanen’s works are held in prominent public and private collections, including those of the Finnish National Gallery, the State Art Deposit Collection, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Turku Art Museum, and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation. In 2019, she received the prestigious Ducat Prize from the Finnish Art Society.
