Laikku’s summer exhibitions explore glass art and layers of popular culture
Tommi Ketonen: Glimpses – Gallery
Tommi Ketonen’s exhibition Glimpses brings together glass sculptures in which light, colour and the layered nature of glass form a multidimensional visual world. Working in Nuutajärvi, Ketonen is particularly known for his sculptures created using the demanding graal technique, where images, forms and layers of colour reveal themselves gradually to the viewer.
The works draw on emotions, memories, the beauty of nature and fleeting moments that appear as brief flashes. As a material, glass reflects, transmits and refracts light in constantly shifting ways, making each work appear slightly different depending on the viewing angle.
The exhibition features both new and earlier sculptures, where fragility and strength, permanence and transience are set side by side. Central to the works are Ketonen’s characteristic feminine figures, accompanied by birds, plant motifs and other elements drawn from nature.
Ketonen’s practice is based on the demanding graal technique, in which the imagery inside the sculpture is built through multiple stages. In these works, light, colour and layers of glass bring out the delicacy, beauty and finitude of life.
Tommi Ketonen (b. 1970, Helsinki) is a glass artist working in Nuutajärvi. His work has been exhibited in dozens of exhibitions in Finland and across Europe. His artistic practice is known for its technical refinement and its distinctive way of combining light, colour and layered glass into a unified visual and conceptual whole.
Minna Soraluoma: So in Love – Studio
Minna Soraluoma’s exhibition So in Love explores Harlequin-style paperback novels, which were a central part of popular culture particularly from the 1980s to the early 2000s. The books used in the exhibition represent a world that is gradually disappearing.
The works feature recognisable elements of romantic popular fiction: strongly characterised figures, dramatic turns of events and heightened emotional expression. The exhibition highlights both the clichés of the genre and its unexpected nuances – alongside glamour, there is also roughness and surprising, less polished elements.
The aesthetics and narrative principles of Harlequin novels continue to live on in mainstream fiction and television series. Soraluoma’s work often focuses on overlooked aspects and materials with their own histories and layered pasts.
Minna Soraluoma (b. 1965) is a visual artist and writer based in Tampere. She studied at Lahti Institute of Design and at the University of Lapland. Her work focuses on marginal or overlooked subjects and on the histories and meanings embedded in materials. Her works have been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Finland and internationally. So in Love is her first solo exhibition in Tampere in nearly two decades.
In the Gallery: Tommi Ketonen – Glimpses
In the Studio: Minna Soraluoma – So in Love
Exhibition dates: 4 July – 15 August 2026
Free admission
Culture House Laikku
Keskustori 4, Tampere
Summer opening hours:
Tue–Sat, 10:00–18:00
