Amos Rex
Mannerheimintie 22-24, 00100 Helsinki
Amos Rex is Helsinki's most exciting contemporary art museum — an underground gallery beneath Lasipalatsi (Glass Palace) Square whose presence is announced by a series of domed skylights that bulge from the plaza surface like bubbles rising from the earth.
Ateneum Art Museum
Kaivokatu 2, 00100 Helsinki
The Ateneum is Finland's most important art museum — a Renaissance Revival building from 1887 that houses the national collection of Finnish art from the 18th century to the 1950s, including the defining works of Finnish visual culture: Akseli Gallen-Kallela's Kalevala paintings, Albert Edelfelt's Parisian-influenced portraits, and Hugo Simberg's strange, haunting allegories that remain among the most recognisable images in Nordic art.
Design District Helsinki
Punavuori, Helsinki, Finland
The Design District is a 25-block neighbourhood in Punavuori and Ullanlinna that concentrates over 200 design shops, galleries, studios, and museums into a walkable area that represents Finnish design culture at its most accessible.
HAM Helsinki Art Museum
8 Eteläinen Rautatiekatu, Kamppi, Helsinki, 00100, Finland
HAM is Helsinki's city art museum — housed in the Tennispalatsi (Tennis Palace), a functionalist building from 1938 that was originally built as a tennis court for the 1940 Olympics (which were cancelled due to World War II) and has served as a cinema, entertainment centre, and since 2015, Helsinki's primary venue for contemporary art exhibitions and the city's public art collection.
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art
Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki
Kiasma is Finland's national museum of contemporary art — a curving, asymmetric building designed by American architect Steven Holl and completed in 1998 that was controversial when it opened (Finns are not natural enthusiasts of asymmetry) and has since become one of Helsinki's most important cultural landmarks.
Sibelius Monument
39 Mechelininkatu, Taka-Töölö, Helsinki, 00250, Finland
The Sibelius Monument is Finland's most famous public sculpture — a cluster of over 600 hollow steel pipes welded together into an abstract wave form that honours Jean Sibelius, Finland's greatest composer and one of the most important figures in the country's cultural identity.
Suvilahti & Kalasatama
22 Sörnäisten rantatie, Sörnäinen, Helsinki, 00540, Finland
Suvilahti is Helsinki's creative district — a former power station and gasworks on the eastern waterfront that has been converted into event spaces, artist studios, and the kind of post-industrial cultural hub that every European city aspires to but few achieve as organically as Helsinki.
Explore art in Helsinki
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