Art from the Soul of the Northern Nature.
KAARNA brings together artists from the Eastern Finland – and you. Choose a unique artwork and bring into your home or collection the serenity of forests and lakes.
KAARNA Art Management, based in North Karelia, is a nature-centric event and management agency where art meets the power of nature. We curate and mediate one-of-a-kind works – from paintings to poetry, from fine crafts to sculptures – and organize art events, concerts, and exhibitions.
KAARNA Gallery is an art gallery space in central Joensuu, with the current exhibition of MAA-ILMA.
Explore Our Art Gallery.
Support Eastern Finnish art and bring KAARNA collective’s works into your home, space, or collection – art that touches, empowers, and inspires.
KAARNA MAA-ILMA
The exhibition opens on 18 December 2025
KAARNA Gallery, Torikatu 29 (Niskakatu side), 80100 Joensuu, Finland
The KAARNA MAA-ILMA exhibition brings together artists from Eastern Finland whose works are born from the soul of nature. In old folk tradition, nature is understood as an extension of the human soul — a guardian spirit guiding our lives toward naturalness, balance, and happiness.
The works in the MAA-ILMA exhibition have grown from the soil, been born among forests, and enchanted by the beauty of lakes. Forest animals and their guardian spirits gaze from them, touching our own. For us, maa-ilma signifies a worldview in which earth and sky, matter and spirit, the visible and the invisible together form an experience of nature’s living presence. The purpose of the works is to spark wonder at the interplay between the guardian forces of nature, its beauty, its multidimensionality, and our felt connection to it.
KAARNA MAA-ILMA presents the works of the KAARNA collective — a multidisciplinary group of nature-centric artists from Eastern Finland, founded in 2025.
In sculptor Hannes Aleksi’s pieces, beings emerge from the essence of wood and from mythical reality: forest figures, animal heads, and charred silences. In the works of visual artists Kaisa Juntunen and Sanni-Maaria Puustinen, born from the power of roots, the wisdom of folk poetry, and deep connection with nature, animals look directly at us, like ancestors. Ceramic artist Henriikka Leppänen has created a series of works for the exhibition in synergy with forest conservation. We also see her earlier works shaped from natural North Karelian clay.
Nature poet Ari Jäntti’s five poems converse with the other works in the exhibition, reflecting and conveying the interconnectedness of the realms of maa-ilma. Juha Kuosmanen’s sound instruments evoke wonder even in silence — holding the moment before a magical tone awakens the guardian spirit and reaches through six celestial vaults. The shamanic spell drums by Koli-based craftswoman Jaana Louhelainen create connections across time and through the sacred places of nature, calling us into nature’s rhythm and into listening to the guardian spirit.
Musician Niina Annika has created a new audiovisual installation for the exhibition, in which sound and moving image bring a North Karelian sacred grove into dialogue with sound instruments, ceramic surfaces, and sculptural forms.
KAARNA MAA-ILMA invites you to slow down and enter the space of maa-ilma, where the guardian forces of life and nature can reach you. It reminds us that art and nature are not separate — both arise from the connection that sustains us all.
The exhibition is curated by Helena Karhu.
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Fine Art
Art from the North – born of nature, earth and air, the wisdom of the old folk, and the strength of deep roots.
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Sculptures
“The sculptures combine the physical knowledge of craftsmanship and listening to the material. Wood is not just a tool, but a world. Every knot, crack and cause acts as part of the form – not as a coincidence, but as a path. The work is often done slowly and alone, without ready-made sketches. The sculpture grows when the time is right.” Hannes Aleksi
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Ceramics
Sculptures from clay, the shapes of the earth, the world of nature spirits, in the colors of nature.
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Music and Sound Art
Music and sound journeys from the soul of northern nature. Folk music and traditional lullabies. Book a concert experience for your event, festival or concert venue from North Karelia, Finland.
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Poetry
Flowing and powerful words from the North. Performances, multidisciplinary productions, poetry books and nature poems on plywood boards.
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Magical Art
Tunes from deep within the nature of North Savo to open up worlds. Shaman drums made by artisan craftmaker from North Karelia. Nature and elven power.
Great Ones of Kalevala Rising
The winning proposal of the “In Search of the Sampo” idea competition brings a monumental sculptural series by sculptor Hannes Aleksi to Nurmes, Finland.
The roofed, larger-than-life wooden sculptures will follow the northern shore of Lake Pielinen, forming an internationally distinctive landmark inspired by Kalevala mythology.
We are currently seeking partner companies and investors to support the realization of this unique project – for example by becoming a patron of one of the major sculptures in the series.
If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact us at info@kaarnaart.com.
Order a concert or music by Niina Annika
Do you want a unique musical experience for your event, celebration or project? Order a concert by Niina Annika or a musical piece tailored just for your occasion.
This is for you, who would like to connect also with the folk music and traditional lullabies from North Karelia, Finland. Listen to the new music video by Niina Annika below.
Contact: info@kaarnaart.com / tel. +358405148788
Photograpger: Karoliina Gavrilov
I turn into the forest and meet myself. --For it is not the voices shouted loud that weave my cells anew, but the ones spoken softly.
The Forest's call leads me to pause at the cradle-heritage of the old folk. It beckons me to dive into the timeless layers of bark and moss, to hear the whispers of the forest, it's ancient lullaby.
The track is the single release from Niina Annika's upcoming November 2025 album, Unten alisilla.
Artist / Producer / Vocals / Art Director / Editor: Niina Annika
Recorder & Mixing engineer: Joonas Myller
Mastering engineer: Alho Audio
Mastering Camera Operator, Location Scout: Karoliina Gavrilov
I have become part of the landscape
I feel the breath of the trees
The stories of the flowing water
And I don't know
if there will be
anymore return to what was
— poet Ari Jäntti
“KAARNA Art Management was born out of a love for, and wonder at, Eastern Finnish and nature-centered art. Furthermore, this world needs nature-centered art and artists now more than ever.”
Helena Karhu
Welcome to the world, where the art carries alive the power of the Northern forests, waters, winds and mother earth. We arrange curated exhibitions, concerts, and offer pieces to private and public collections.
Hannes Aleksi is a Finnish sculptor whose works are born from the material of wood and the unspoken language.
He does not seek to present or explain, but rather lets the creatures emerge: forest figures, sleeping faces, animal heads and charred silences.
The sculptures combine the physical knowledge of craftsmanship and listening to the material. Wood is not just a tool, but a world. Every knot, crack and reason acts as part of the form – not as a coincidence, but as a path. The work is often done slowly and alone, without ready-made sketches. The sculpture grows when the time is right.
Visit us
KAARNA Gallery
Siltakatu 29 (entrance from Niskakatu street)
80100 Joensuu
Finland
Follow our journey.
info@kaarnaart.com
www.instagram.com/kaarna_gallery
Tel. +358405148788 / Helena Karhu