Matti Helenius – Alte Kameraden
Between humor and gravity
The exhibition series at WAM Kilta Gallery concludes with Alte Kameraden (working title), a solo exhibition by Matti Helenius, a Finnish artist with a long and distinguished career.
Helenius first gained recognition as a printmaker, but over the decades his artistic practice has expanded to include painting and assemblage. His working process is strongly material-driven: he does not rely on sketches but allows intuition and the evolving work itself to guide him.
The exhibition showcases Helenius’ most recent works alongside selected pieces from earlier periods, featuring prints, paintings, and assemblages. Through his art, he addresses themes that resonate personally with him, often exploring human destinies and events—sometimes tackling serious subjects with subtle humor.
The WAM Kilta Gallery exhibition series follows a guiding principle: inviting an artist from outside the field of visual arts to collaborate with a writer, who creates a text inspired by the exhibition’s theme and works. For Helenius’ exhibition, the accompanying text has been written by Turku-based poet Tapani Kinnunen.
The exhibition will be curated by Jonni Saloluoma of WAM Turku City Art Museum. The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency.
WAM Kilta Gallery
WAM’s exhibitions are temporarily relocated to Kilta Gallery at Art House Turku.
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The artist
Born in Turku in 1951, Matti Helenius studied at the Turku Drawing School from 1969 to 1973. He has presented numerous solo exhibitions in Finland, Sweden, Germany, and England, and has participated in group exhibitions in more than thirty countries. His works are represented in major museum and public collections both in Finland and abroad, including the Ateneum, Kiasma, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, Tampere Art Museum, as well as the art collection of the City of Turku.
Text in connection with the exhibition
The text is written by Tapani Kinnunen.
ARTIST MATTI HELENIUS – GRANDE FINALE Matti Helenius’s art springs from the Turku underground of the late sixties and early seventies, and from the great wave of pop art that swept across the world. His work stands in the same current begun in Turku by poets Jarkko Laine and Markku Into as well as visual artist Harro Koskinen — not only as members of band Suomen Talvisota 1939–1940, but as singular voices of their own. Politics is not something to tiptoe around; it’s something to face head-on through art. There is reason for that — the world’s great wheel is on fire. Climate change, war, the rights of humans and animals. Ukraine, Gaza, and Finland. Aesthetic and ethical integrity are never bargained away. With a frying pan you can make a meal — or beat a person to death. When the bottom of the Aura River was dragged, up came a fish trap holding a whale and a tiger. That is Helenius in a nutshell. His art surprises you every single time, exhibition after exhibition. Grande Finale. A few words here about Andy Warhol and John Cage. Helenius is kin to both of them. In his own way — citizens of the world. Once I stood on the bank of the Aura River watching the ice break up. I noticed Helenius watching the same moment. “If only one could capture that,” he said. Another time he sat down at our table on the terrace of the bar Apteekki, handed my wife and me a paper bag filled with freshly roasted chestnuts or almonds. “Please, help yourselves,” he said. We ate them with great pleasure; after that the beer tasted better than usual. Thank you, Matti. (As I write this, the German military march Alte Kameraden from 1889 is playing in the background — the artist Helenius said it would be the title of the exhibition. Of course it would.)