Image: Rauma Art Museum, Helsinki
Paavo Paunu’s solo exhibition ‘Seitsemän merta ja kahdeksan kyyneltä’ is on view at Rauma Art Museum from 9 May to 4 October 2026. Spanning works made from the 1990s to the present, the exhibition also includes several entirely new pieces made specifically for the Rauma presentation.
Born in 1965, Paunu is known as both a painter and sculptor, though his works mischievously cross the boundaries of media. The museum describes each painting and sculpture as telling a singular story while opening onto the longer history of its chosen medium.
Harri Laakso, the exhibition’s curator, characterises Paunu’s work as a repeated reinvention of the idea of a medium. Laakso says the artist seeks, layers, depicts and imagines a world that might be possible, while misleading viewers into seeing differently.
The exhibition will be the subject of a Pinnala TALKS event on 17 September, when Paunu will discuss his career, background and working methods. During September, local seventh-grade students will visit ‘Seitsemän merta ja kahdeksan kyyneltä’ through Rauma’s cultural-education programme, joining guided tours on the exhibition’s themes and contemporary art.
