Image: Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
Galerie Anhava presented works by Essi Kuokkanen, Päivi Takala and the artist duo Grönlund–Nisunen at Booth 21 of CHART Art Fair 2026, held at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen from 27 to 30 August. The fair closed on 30 August. The Helsinki gallery’s presentation brought together painting and kinetic installation around questions of emotion, co-existence and the physical forces that shape the world around us.
Founded in 1991 by Ilona Anhava, Galerie Anhava has maintained a programme focused on Finnish and Nordic contemporary art, representing both emerging and established artists across different media. Hanna Huitu took over as gallerist in 2019. According to CHART, the gallery has remained active internationally through art fairs, projects and collaborations, while continuing to operate from Fredrikinkatu 43 in Helsinki.
Essi Kuokkanen’s paintings examine sensitivity, introspection and sympathy, giving physical form to thoughts and feelings that are difficult to articulate. The gallery describes her interest in the physicality of emotion: the way mental events produce reactions in the body. Her figures function as vessels for conflicting needs, compassion and unruly energy. Works shown in the CHART presentation included ‘Dazzling Joy’ (2025), ‘I would love you in every world’ (2025), ‘Decomposing Crying Growing’ (2024) and ‘Waiting for the Baby’ (2022), all in oil on canvas.
Kuokkanen, born in 1991 in Finland, lives and works in Helsinki. Her work has been the subject of an extensive solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, and during summer 2026 she was included in the group exhibition ‘Freshly Painted’ at the Sara Hildén Museum in Tampere. She held a solo exhibition at Turku Art Museum in 2023 and has taken part in group exhibitions at institutions including EMMA, Kiasma and Rovaniemi Art Museum.
Päivi Takala’s luminous paintings address the difficulty of living with other beings, including horses, birds and plants. Her muted sand tones, deep blacks and vivid blues draw on the quiet presence of early Renaissance frescoes. Takala has also treated painting as a material open to alteration, physically perforating, sawing and repairing works with cement. The CHART page listed ‘Hi there II’ (2024), ‘Shelter I’ (2024), ‘Still Life’ (2024) and the exhibition view ‘My Precious’ (2024) among the works associated with her presentation.
Born in 1970, Takala lives and works in Helsinki and has taught painting at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts since 2014. She exhibited at Ulterior Gallery in New York in 2026 and held a solo exhibition at Cecilia Hillström Gallery in Stockholm in 2025. Tommi Grönlund (b. 1967) and Petteri Nisunen (b. 1962), who live and work in Helsinki, showed works from their installation practice, including the ‘Empty Inside’ series. The artists use technology, sound and light to investigate space and physical phenomena; in this series, stainless-steel cubes collapse under external pressure after being sunk to the depths of the sea. Their wider practice has included international exhibitions and public commissions across the Nordic countries, and in 2001 they curated the Nordic Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale.
CHART 2026 opened with a VIP preview on 27 August and ran until 30 August at Charlottenborg, Kongens Nytorv 1, Copenhagen. The fair has since closed; all three practices continue to be represented by Galerie Anhava in Helsinki.
