Viljami Heinonen: Threshold at Galerie Forsblom

Viljami Heinonen’s exhibition opens onto a series of interiors: beautifully ornate rooms furnished with heavy velvet curtains, oriental rugs, and wooden furniture. Despite their apparent decorativeness, a sense of heaviness hangs in the air. The atmosphere is motionless, and the silence feels oppressive. The absence of human figures is underscored by the traces they have left behind: a coat forgotten on a coat rack, a solitary mannequin, the luxurious folds of a skirt draped around an emptiness where the body should be. At times, bodies come into view, yet their faces remain obscured, erasing any sense of human presence. Animals appear only as hides or trophies; nature, too, functions purely as an element of decor.

The spatiality of each work keeps collapsing even as it is being constructed, just as the figurative and the abstract coexist within each gesture. Interiors dissolve and disappear in one corner, while in another they cling insistently to their existence. The paintings are characterized by a powerful layering of both physical and temporal dimensions. Heinonen paints memories, and the locations he creates thus double as psychological spaces: they transport us back to experiences already lived, carrying with them a range of emotional resonances and inviting us to reflect on the fleeting nature of existence.

Viljami Heinonen (b. 1986) graduated from Kankaanpää Art School in 2012. He has held solo exhibitions at Serlachius and Laukko Manor, and has participated in group exhibitions at venues including Tampere Art Museum, Pori Art Museum, and Rovaniemi Art Museum. His work is held in collections including HAM Helsinki Art Museum, the Saastamoinen Foundation, Pori Art Museum, the Wihuri Foundation, and the State Art Deposit Collection. He received the William Thuring Prize in 2022, the Art of Basware Award in 2013, and the Marcus Collin Foundation’s Painting Prize in 2025. Threshold is Heinonen’s third solo exhibition at Galerie Forsblom, which has represented the artist since 2025.

The exhibition is on view from September 18 to October 18, 2026.

Galerie Forsblom
Yrjönkatu 22, Helsinki

Opening hours
Tue–Fri 11 am–6 pm
Sat–Sun 12 pm–4 pm
Mon closed

 

Free entrance