Observer’s Guide to Helsinki’s Best Art Galleries and Museums

Finland has long been ranked as the happiest country on earth. Its lush natural landscapes, ingrained wellness culture, and robust social contract make the nation one of the soundest and safest places to live. An emphasis on art and culture, too, plays a major role in maintaining this happiness score, most particularly in the capital of Helsinki.

The city, spread across a series of islands, has many exceptional galleries and museums (though no Guggenheim, as the idea was voted down in 2016). There are stately institutions dedicated to preserving Finnish masterpieces and new spaces committed to showcasing emerging artists in and from the Nordic region. Use our gallery guide to help plan a visit to Finland around Helsinki’s eclectic art scene or as a complement to an itinerary built around one of the city’s major art events, such as the Helsinki Biennial and Helsinki Festival.

The best art galleries and museums in Helsinki

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Kiasma)

Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki

Designed by American architect Steven Holl and situated in the center of Helsinki, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Kiasma) pairs provocative new works with an impressive contemporary collection. The focus, naturally, is showcasing Finnish artists (as the gallery mainly collects from local artists) and emerging new European creators staged across the gallery’s snaking white interior levels. A handful of new shows are mounted each year, alongside major thematic exhibitions that leverage the 8,000 works on hand. Recent shows have included Simon Fujiwara’s deeply ironic “It’s a Small World” (mining advertising cues and Disney iconography to study the self) and a comprehensive retrospective of the country’s queer erotic namesake, Tom of Finland. The space may be small but packs a mighty punch with its spotlight programs (elevating Scandinavian artists like Nina Beier and Jani Leinonen) while investing heavily in digital art developed on social media and mobile apps.

Helsinki Art Museum (HAM)

Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8, 00100 Helsinki

The Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) is the city’s magnetizing major museum, boasting an archive of over 10,000 artworks and acting as the custodian of Helsinki’s extensive public art. It’s also one of the largest galleries in the Nordic region. Iconic Finnish painters like Ellen Thesleff and Helene Schjerfbeck meet modern artists like Jean Dubuffet and Tove Jansson at HAM in a diverse mix of classic works married with bold early-career ones. Many may not immediately recognize key pieces from the Finnish tradition but are encouraged to seek out prized works from the country’s own art history here, like Jansson’s Before the Masquerade (1943) and Tyko Sallinen’s Mirri (1910). The museum’s ethos—making art more visible and accessible through the public works program—strongly encourages foreign visitors to engage with public art across the city. (Otto Karvonen’s The Roots of the City in the city’s metro is a must.) Since 2021, HAM has hosted the Helsinki Biennial, an eclectic showcasing of contemporary art across Helsinki’s archipelago. (The next edition is slated for 2025.)

SEE ALSO: Helsinki’s Art-Crazy Hotel St. George Houses an Original Ai Weiwei—Plus 300 Other Works

Didrichsen Art Museum

Kuusilahdenkuja 1, 00340 Helsinki

For anyone interested in modern architecture and classical art, the Didrichsen Art Museum is an ideal attraction. This Modernist private home-public gallery was designed by architect Viljo Revell in the late 1950s, with the property woven into the contours of the landscape and encircled by imposing pine trees. It sits out the main city center on one of Helsinki’s many islands, with the abode surrounded by a luminous pool and a verdant public sculpture park. Although the Didrichsen collection is smaller than its peers, it schedules three major shows throughout the year. It also has a small but well-founded collection of ancient Asian and Latin American artifacts. Some colorful works by renowned painter Reidar Särestöniemi sit within the collection, with his distinctive bright paintings famously layered with repeat coatings of paint. Didrichsen’s union of elegant and streamlined architecture with ancient pieces in a naturalistic landscape makes for a deeply restorative visit.

Amos Rex

Mannerheimintie 22-24, 00100 Helsinki

The city’s newest art museum, Amos Rex, only opened in 2018, but its origins date back to when media magnate Amos Anderson created his own gallery. Over the decades, the emphasis, however, has remained on the visual arts—only now based within an underground city center annex. The distinctive domes above ground, radiating luminous light back to the galleries underground, create a modern subterranean space that enhances the visitor experience. Beyond the labyrinth architecture, Amos Rex has some robust permanent collections, most especially collector Sigurd Frosterus’s art collection that catalogues 20th-century Finnish modernism. In recent years, the museum has collaborated with the Japanese art collective teamLab in digital art, carving out a keen interest in augmented reality (AR) as an ongoing preoccupation. (AR is baked into many new exhibitions and can often be enjoyed from your phone.) Visiting in the summertime can sometimes be best, with programming focusing on the emerging frontiers in contemporary Nordic art.

Sinebrychoff Art Museum

Bulevardi 40, 00120 Helsinki

While many of Helsinki’s galleries take a keen interest in contemporary art, institutions like the Sinebrychoff Art Museum—part of the Finnish National Gallery—specialize in classic works. Art from the 14th century to the 19th century takes center stage (with an emphasis on post-Renaissance) at this grand museum, with an extensive catalogue of local historical art and the country’s largest collection of miniatures. Old Masters, especially from the Nordic region, like Alexander Roslin and Hieronymus Francken II, are key artists featured in the permanent collection. Connoisseurs of objects d’art—from glassware and porcelain to antique clocks and furniture—can find their cultural appetites satiated with the museum’s many rococo and colonial pieces. Beyond the museum, half of the building features the namesake house, the 19th-century estate of the Sinebrychoff family (famous Finnish soda makers). Feel Finnish history radiate from the walls and savor this distinctly Scandinavian art experience.

Helsinki Contemporary

Bulevardi 10, 00120 Helsinki

Nestled right in the heart of Helsinki in a stylish neo-renaissance building, Helsinki Contemporary is a leading private gallery first established in 2007. The designer of the space, Ilkka Suppanen, is much-admired in Finland and brought a unique and naturalistic feel to their otherwise typical, white-washed gallery space. There are about ten exhibitions throughout the year, primarily focused on elevating the profile of contemporary Finnish artists, with recent showings of Sanna Kannisto (and her famous photographs of birds) and Rauha Mäkilä (and her garish advertorial-like images). Visual art is the gallery’s main interest, especially artists in dialogue with Finnish society and culture. Beyond the headline shows, Helsinki Contemporary also has a showroom where interested art purveyors can consider works not in exhibitions from their collection. In and amongst the art museums and public galleries, Helsinki Contemporary is an intimate pitstop to experience—especially for those interested in buying rather than simply admiring.

Ateneum Art Museum

Kaivokatu 2, 00100 Helsinki

Along with the Kiasma and the Sinebrychoff, Ateneum is the final museum in the “triptych” of Helsinki’s Finnish National Gallery network. If Kiasma edges to contemporary and Sinebrychoff indulges in the medieval, Ateneum—the city’s oldest museum and largest—is firmly grounded in more recent art movements, most especially experimental 19th- and 20th-century ones. A veritable collection extends from Paul Cézanne to Edvard Munch, Marc Chagall to Eugène Delacroix, featuring acclaimed international artists alongside the oeuvres of local famed expressionist Väinö Kunnas (famously muted but evocative) and neo-romantic Elga Sesemann (distinctly forlorn and melancholic in style). Blockbuster shows have come through in recent years, often celebrating the alluring and distinctively local perspectives and aesthetics of Finnish artists like Albert Edelfelt and Outi Heiskanen. While the focus is often on canvas works, the Ateneum also boasts its own collection of 900 Japanese woodcuts (from artists like Harunobu Suzuki). It’s an unexpected treat having such an extensive collection of historic Japanese prints in a mostly European gallery.