Ongoing

Juha Allan Ekholm

GRANDMOTHER'S LAND

26.9.2026 – 20.12.2026

The exhibition presented at the Nelimarkka Museum is a photographic installation exploring the Ostrobothnian landscape.

The new exhibition opening at the Nelimarkka Museum is a photographic installation exploring the Ostrobothnian landscape. For the artist, Juha Allan Ekholm, photography is not only a means of documentation but also a versatile medium in contemporary art, capable of becoming part of spatial works and installations.

GRANDMOTHER’S LAND brings together the visual worlds of documentary photography and installation art. In the exhibition, the artist introduces materials such as lime and soil, as well as objects found in South Ostrobothnia, including a running track. According to Ekholm, the result is “familiar and strange at the same time, like a waking dream or a hypnagogic vision.” Thematically, the exhibition explores both the landscape itself and collective perceptions of landscape.

Ekholm worked on the exhibition during several residencies at the Nelimarkka Museum over the course of several years, spending periods of varying lengths at the museum’s artist residency. The first location he photographed was Sulkavankylä, a village on the border of South Ostrobothnia, from which part of the artist’s family originates.

Juha Allan Ekholm (born 1965 in Espoo, Finland) studied photography, video and site-specific art at the Turku Arts Academy and Tampere University of Applied Sciences. His works are held in collections in Finland and abroad. In 2025, Ekholm received the WihuriEfekti Award from the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation.