27.2.–22.3.2026

The works in the exhibition are made of different parts which share a nearly similar form. In the works, ready-made objects encounter natural materials collected along forest paths. Elements from diverse origins intermingle, are juxtaposed, and reorganized according to visual criteria.

Life consists of bits and pieces which we connect together in our mind. Could we manage without organizing and classification? Alphabetical order, schedules, and hierarchies of things and objects all suggest that we encounter the world by classifying it.

Each component in my works is slightly different to each other, and in my practice, I arrange the parts according to affinities of form. The elements can be regarded as former, present, or future objects, which I place on the same line. Within the works, they generate new environments for one another, in which an object that once seemed superfluous or unnecessary gains a renewed justification for its existence.

The materials include wood, paper, textile, plastic, and metal etc. In the work Purjehdus (Sailing), I have followed a single material, constructing wooden water for a variety of wooden boats.

The exhibition has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Kone Foundation.

Maija Närhinen’s works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, most recently at the Oulu Art Museum and the Mänttä Art Festival in 2025. Närhinen’s Doctor of Fine Arts degree was also based on her own artistic practice. Närhinen completed a commissioned work for the EMMA collection in 2023. Her works are also included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, the Oulu Art Museum, the Rovaniemi Art Museum, and the Saastamoinen and Serlachius foundations, among others. Närhinen was awarded the State Prize for Visual Arts in 2024.