Miettinen Collection: Body Politics

Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art will be hosting the exhibition Body Politics, based on the Miettinen Collection, from 24 January until 4 April 2026. The exhibition presents a wide selection of works by Finnish and internationally renowned artists and provides an overview of the art collection, where the human body plays a central role. The exhibition features approximately 130 works that invite us to deepen our understanding of humanity.

The name Body Politics refers to the social norms and politics that regulate the human body, as well as the struggle between the individual and society for control over it. The exhibition is named after the Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo’s (b. 1984) work Body Politics 3 (2016). Boafo, a leading contemporary artist, addresses the role of ethnicity, identity and masculinity in his powerful paintings – themes which are central to the exhibition. On view in the exhibition are also works by Finnish and international artists such as Alexander Basil, Karim Boumjimar, Louise Bourgeois, Elina Brotherus, Zohar Fraiman, Leiko Ikemura, Janne Räisänen, Julian Röder, Emma Sarpaniemi, Tom of Finland and Grace Weaver.

Timo Miettinen has made his career within the family business. Today, he is more dedicated to the art collection and is the family’s second-generation art collector, who was exposed to art from an early age. He lives in Berlin, where Salon Dahlman is also located – a meeting place that focuses on the internationalization of Finnish art. The Miettinen Collection contains approximately 1,500 works and since 2004 the collection has been expanded with contemporary art.

The exhibition Miettinen Collection: Body Politics, which is being held at the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, concludes an international tour of museum exhibitions that has presented the collection in both Germany and Finland. The exhibition is curated by Noora Lehtovuori, Maaria Salo and Janna Sirén.