Image: Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Stockholm
Kin Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiruna will open its autumn exhibition 'Om det fula och det vackra: Johan Turi, Outi Pieski och Johanna Minde' on 5 September 2026, presenting what the museum says is the first exhibition of Johan Turi’s images in nearly a century. The show will run until 22 April 2027 and brings together Turi’s drawings and objects with sculpture, painting and photography by Outi Pieski and Johanna Minde.
The museum describes Turi, who lived from 1854 to 1936, as a legendary Sámi artist and writer whose color-pencil drawings created unique visual narratives about work, love and nature in Sápmi. In the museum’s preview material, the works are presented as an invaluable historical document. The exhibition is being framed not only as an art presentation but also as a wider engagement with Sámi history, culture and knowledge traditions.
Kin has positioned the project within its broader focus on Sámi art and contemporary cultural context. The museum notes that it always presents some aspect of Sámi art in its galleries and that the fifth collection presentation in 2026 includes three works by Johan Turi borrowed from Kiruna municipality’s art collection as a historical reference and a preview of the autumn exhibition. That collection presentation, 'Samlingspresentation 5', runs until 16 May 2026 and includes works by several Sámi artists.
The opening day on 5 September will be a full program of talks and performances on Plan 2, beginning at 12:30 with an opening ceremony for 'Markerna', a work by Carola Grahn and Nils-Johan Labba. Kin director Maria Lind will welcome visitors, followed by a joik performance by Krister Stoor and presentations by Pieski and Minde about their exhibition contributions. Later in the afternoon, artist Eva la Cour will present a film about the relationship between the Danish artist and self-taught anthropologist Emilie Demant Hatt and Johan Turi.
The day continues with lectures from scholars and cultural commentators, including Harald Gaski, who will speak on Turi as a Sámi classic from an Indigenous aesthetic perspective; Mikael Svonni, who will discuss Turi as a writer with an eye for both detail and the whole; and Hanna Horsberg Hansen, who will address the artistic exchange between Turi and Demant Hatt. The program also includes Eeva-Kristiina Nylander on 'lájdogahpir', the traditional Sámi headdress, and its cultural meanings.
The exhibition is linked to Kin’s seminar series 'Sápmi och dess kulturhistoria', organized with Várdduo: Centre for Sámi Research at Umeå University, Tjállegoáhte Sámi Writers’ Centre, Stockholm University of the Arts and HDK-Valand. The series begins on 1 September 2026 and continues through 22 April 2027, with seminars held at partner venues around Sweden and streamed online. Kin says the series is part of the exhibition and will address Sámi history, cultural history and contemporary experience through talks by Sámi researchers and cultural practitioners.
