Urban Encounters: Ateneum Art Museum exhibits Finnish art from the 20th century
(Artdaily.org)

How did urbanisation influence the Finnish way of life – and how did this show in visual art? How did everyday life change when people had more free time and gender roles were liberated? Urban Encounters tells a fascinating story about 20th-century Finland. The exhibition of approximately 300 works features many rarely shown pieces from the Finnish National Gallery collection. Urban Encounters arose from the exhibition The Modern Woman, which presented works by Helene Schjerfbeck, Elga Sesemann, Sigrid Schauman and Ellen Thesleff. Produced by the Ateneum, the exhibition was shown in New York, Stockholm and Oulu. Urban Encounters broadens our perspective on changes to the Finnish way of life in cities, and how these changes are shown in Finnish visual art. The topics of the works range from urbanity to domesticity, from war to the circus, and from body to identity. The works include a great many recognisable cityscapes from Helsinki. Urban Encounters is a celebration