Image: Erkki Mykrä, Lassie Suddenly Burst Out Laughing, 1982. OP Pohjola Art Foundation. Photo: Stella Ojala
Works by the Finnish abstract painter Matti Kujasalo are among some 60 pieces in "Lassie Suddenly Burst Out Laughing," an exhibition of the OP Pohjola Art Foundation's collection at Söderlångvik Museum on Kimito Island. The show ran from May 1 to September 30, 2026, and reopens for a second autumn period from November 14 to December 16, 2026.
Söderlångvik Museum, an art and biographical museum housed in the former summer residence of the businessman and arts patron Amos Anderson (1878–1961), has given the exhibition five rooms on its ground floor. The works span almost six decades, from Unto Koistinen's painting "Hannu" (1957) to Heimo Suntio's installation "The Draughtsman" (2016), though most date from the 1980s and 1990s. The title comes from a small 1982 sculpture by Erkki Mykrä.
The hang is shaped by the rooms of the manor. According to the museum, the spacious drawing room is given over to abstraction, a central current in Finnish modernism, with work by Kujasalo alongside Juhana Blomstedt, Mari Rantanen and Kain Tapper. The large dining room holds bigger pieces, including Kaj Stenvall's early image of workers, "Dismissal," Esko Tirronen's "In the Wind," Raimo Aarras's "Beach," Paul Osipow's "Ruins, Grez sur Loing" and a print series by Ann Sundholm on animal patterning. The smaller rooms are more intimate, with works by Marjukka Paunila, Katarina Reuter, Markku Keränen and Marjatta Hanhijoki, among others, and sculptures by artists such as Minna Tuominen, Miina Äkkijyrkkä, Laila Pullinen, Kari Huhtamo and Pauno Pohjolainen are placed throughout.
The OP Pohjola Art Foundation is a non-profit body that supports music and the visual arts. Its own collection numbers about 1,500 works, and it manages a further 1,500 belonging to the OP Pohjola Group, ranging from the mid-19th century to today. The museum notes that the foundation and the Amos Anderson Fund have close ties and that such works are rarely seen in public on this scale. A selection of early 20th-century Finnish art from the Amos Anderson Fund's own collections fills the museum's remaining rooms.
