Eexhibition: In Contact — Maija Helasvuo & Niina Räty (FIN)

Kunstraum m3 presents the exhibition “In Contact” featuring sculptures and paintings by the Finnish artists Maija Helasvuo and Niina Räty. This exhibition is an exchange between the finnish-german art space TOOLBOX (https://www.galerietoolbox.com) and the Kunstraum m3.

7.–15.11.2026

Open: Saturday 07 November, Thursday 12 November, Friday 13 November, 4 — 6 pm / and by appointment

Kunstraum m3

MENGERZEILE 1–3 12435 Berlin

Kunstraum m3

Näyttely

Maija Helasvuo (FIN)

Sculptor

At the centre of Maija Helasvuo’s art, are the different levels of human feeling. Her sculptures

picture peoples basic emotional dynamic; loss, vulnerability, closeness and our dependence

on social interaction. Each person is a part of the complete community of humanity. Through

communal experience and all the social forms within it, the process of an event is formed, the

connection and interaction of which makes up the whole content of human society.

That which acts on the powerful emotions inside society as a directing force is in one way

oranother a common factor and causes a process of emotional adaptation. Things that happen in

our environment affect us. Helasvuo’s sculptures picture this invisible influence, which is at once

adaptable and concrete.

Mika Karhu, Ph.D.

Instagram: @maijahelasvuo

www.maijahelasvuo.com

Niina Räty.

Painter

Fish

For the past six years, fish have been Niina Räty‘s subject matter. Pike-perch, perch, and herrings –

sometimes lying on wax paper, sometimes on a plate.

Still-life painting is about learning to look at things as they seem to be. The history of painting is

full of still lifes of fish – silver-sided fish on silver platters, coarse fish scales depicted together with

translucent onions, or moist seafood gleaming on the dirty counter of a market stall. As a motif, a

fish is loaded with meanings, often Christian ones. Above all, it often seems to reflect the pure joy of

painting – the pleasure that comes from seeking light and shine.

Of course, fish themselves are intriguing too. Smelly, even repulsive, oblong creatures, strange and

mute. Fish are valuable yet unfamiliar, lifted up from beneath the surface for food. The boundary

between two worlds is broken just like that.

Most of all, however, Räty is interested in the similarity. The fish is matter, just like the painting, the

viewer, and the painter. The same clammy, speechless substance. By painting fish, she paints all of

us – chunks of flesh dragged into this unfamiliar environment without asking.

Instagram: @Niina_raty

https://cargocollective.com/niinaraty

Thanks to:

Kone Foundation and Alfred Kordelin Foundation