woman walking in deep snow landscape

On the Edge


Private View:

November 7, 2025 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Dates:

November 8, 2025 - December 7, 2025

Event In Conversation Saturday 6 December 6-7pm Elisa Alaluusua & Pirkko Makela-Haapalinna 'How do we define drawing.'in the context of On the Edge. Free event,Refreshments.

Finissage Sunday 7 December 3-5pm join us for refreshments & cake

 Elisa Alaluusua, Tom Engblom, Emmi Kairenius, Kalle Lampela, Leila Lipiäinen,  Pirkko Mäkelä- Haapalinna, Mari Mäkiranta, Sannu Vaarala


Coleman Projects is delighted to present On the Edge, a group exhibition of eight artists from Finnish Lapland curated by Elisa Alaluusua.
 
This group of artists live and work in Finnish Lapland where nature can be harsh and distances challenging. The climate crisis is upon them. They are situated on the edge of the world, on the edge of Europe with a long border between Finland and Russia. They are literally, metaphorically and existentially on the edge.
 
As an alternative for peripheral silence and remote discourses, the group highlights the capacity to cross boundaries and work on the edges, be that in the geographical North or in their art practice. They find potential and tangible as well as spiritual content in northern circumferences.
 
The artists in the exhibition practice on the edges of more than one technique or media. They combine painting and drawing or printmaking and 3D work, or other materials and approaches. Art activism meets photography, boundaries – or edges – are broken and redefined in these works. Art is an intervention in the public space, a play with the lived details of the environment. Meaning is found in everyday experiences and objects; the body is lost in the landscape and new understanding gained through physical contact and settling into spaces.
 
Being situated on the edge shifts our focus and draws attention to boundaries that we cross constantly. Through our edge-defining practices we acknowledge human action as part of nature and trace the undefinable threshold between wilderness and the built environment. We map out places and transcribe time as we move forward.
 
The exhibition explores what it feels like to live on the edge in today’s world when unthinkable things can happen – yet you keep going and exploring though art.
 
Dr. Elisa Alaluusua
 
This group of artists are members of the professional body, Artists’ Association of Lapland*, and come from different disciplines.
*https://www.lapintaiteilijaseura.fi/en/artists/


 
 
 

Elisa Alaluusua (b. 1970) works with video and drawing on paper. She originates from Lapland, spent over 20 years in London and has now returned to her home village.

Tom Engblom (b. 1963) is a sculptor whose works are born from everyday observations: poetic, critical, contradictory or imagined encounters. They emerge from looking at the world, exploring forms and playing with materials.

Emmi Kairenius (b. 1993) uses her body to measure places she encounters and documents her experiences through photography and video. In her performative and playful practice, she explores alternative ways of engaging with everyday environments.

Kalle Lampela (b. 1973) earned a Doctor of Arts degree from the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland in 2012. Before that, he studied not only arts but also social sciences.
In his drawings and collages, Lampela uses everyday materials and working methods, such as walking and recycling. He also creates text-based artworks.

Leila Lipiäinen (b. 1962) works with printmaking and 3D objects combining prints with found object sculptures. Readymade items and materials can be abandoned or broken yet still beautiful and useful.

Pirkko Mäkelä-Haapalinna (b. 1960) is a colourist combining wet and dry materials. She draws when painting and paints when drawing using soft pastels and other media creating conversations of lines and surfaces.

Mari Mäkiranta (b. 1975) combines art activism with her photography and video works. She explores
visual culture, gender and peoples’ living environments enganing in collaboration with communities. scientists or activists.

Sannu Vaarala (b. 1990) is a northern contemporary textile artist. She creates reliefs and sculptures from textile materials by experimental sewing and dyeing techniques.