Image: HAM Helsinki Art Museum
HAM Helsinki Art Museum will open 'Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crossing Boundaries' on May 6, 2026, bringing to Finland the first private exhibition dedicated to the Polish artist’s work. Running through August 30, 2026, the show centers on Abakanowicz’s textile-based sculptures and later sculptural series, including her iconic Abakans, in what HAM describes as a major presentation spread across the museum’s arcaded halls.
The exhibition places Abakanowicz’s practice in the context of the 1960s and 1970s, when she emerged as a pioneer of organic, textile-based sculpture and installation art. According to HAM, the large woven works that became known by the artist’s surname moved beyond the wall and into space, where she arranged them as increasingly three-dimensional environments. The museum notes that this shift allowed Abakanowicz to challenge the boundaries between textile art and sculpture while insisting on her identity as a contemporary sculptor.
'Crossing Boundaries' is structured in two parts. The first focuses on works from the late 1950s through the late 1970s, including early weavings, rope works and Abakans installed according to the artist’s original instructions as a spatial whole, described by HAM as a kind of textile forest. The second part turns to the jute sculptures Abakanowicz began making in the early 1970s, serial works that depict groups of people and different natural forms.
HAM links that second body of work to the artist’s sustained interest in humanity, nature and organic matter. The museum’s exhibition text also cites Abakanowicz on the role of the Abakans, describing them as a bridge between herself and the outside world and a way to create an atmosphere in which she felt safe, because they were her own world. The quotation appears in the exhibition materials as part of a longer interview conducted by Barbara Rose in 1988–91.
The exhibition is curated by Eulalia Domanowska, director of the Sopot Museum of Art. HAM says the project is realised in cooperation with the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, with support from Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The museum’s materials also identify the venue as the arcaded halls of Tennispalatsi in Helsinki.
Alongside the exhibition, HAM is programming related activities between May and August 2026, including 'ABAKAMANIA', a weaving club, and a paid mini tour of the exhibition. A free Friday on July 31 will include 15-minute guided tours in 'Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crossing Boundaries', and open guided tours are scheduled for August 1 in Finnish, English and Swedish. HAM’s event listings also show a workshop with Rosa Tolnov Clausen on July 30.
The museum’s August newsletter and event pages place the exhibition among other summer programmes, but the Abakanowicz show remains the major art exhibition announced for this period. HAM’s own exhibition page lists the show dates as May 6 to August 30, 2026, with the museum at Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8 in Helsinki.
