BEYOND MATTER

NOVEMBER 14, 2025 - JANUARY 3, 2026

NEW YORK

Gaa is delighted to present Beyond Matter, a group exhibition of Finnish artists centered around the themes of nature and mysticism, exploring the intersection of material transformation, natural phenomena, and the unseen spiritual dimensions embedded in physical form. Here the boundaries between the material and immaterial dissolve. Including the work of Taru Happonen, Johanna Härkönen, Emma Jääskeläinen, Eeva Lietonen, Frans Nybacka, Kerttu Saali, Teemu Salonen, and Eetu Sihvonen, Beyond Matter seeks to reveal nature as both presence and process — a space where matter carries memory and spirit.

Within the Kalevala (the Finnish national myth) the element of the sampo bears a trivalent meaning. A pillar to the cosmos, an ascending anchor of heaven’s vault; a wellspring from which boundless creations flow; or perhaps, most widely-recounted, a mill crafted by Ilmarinen, the god of air and sky, its three sides alchemizing salt, grain, and wealth from particles of nothingness.

Bestowing prosperity to any in its possession, legend states this amorphous object was stolen from its mountainous stronghold, only to be broken and lost to the sea. Its remnants washed ashore, interspersed in the soil, scattered and fecund, yielding to the natural lushness of the land’s forests and fields. Coveted, imbued with mystical faculties, the sampo was so powerful that even when broken, its shards still provided, reaped and sowed. Sought by all, within all, but never found — a metaphor for desire’s impetus: generative of output, evasive of definition, and ultimately, beyond matter. 

These remnants of the sampo, their shapeshifting form and abundance so integral to Finnish mythology, find themselves here within the artistic medium. On Kerttu Saali’s canvases, color catapults as an energetic field, exalting the otherworldly within earthen phenomena. At other times the palette emerges as subdued hues, as within Eeva Lietonen’s paintings that rest on the brink of figuration and abstraction, wavering allusions to the domestic and the divine. Frans Nybacka transforms mundane likeness into worlds unmanifested, existing only at imagination’s edge. A familiar landscape belies an ominous, yet ethereal atmosphere. Substances of earth and of man — sanded wood, pulverized metal, powdered marble and glass — become dystopically surreal; these are Taru Happonen’s configurations on linen that yield a codified, pliant corporeality. Materiality becomes a vibrant conduit for the intangible, rather than a foundation or container. 

Beyond Matter unfolds as both invocation and inquiry — a contemplation of how the physical might hold the metaphysical and how nature offers a mirror for the unseen. Symbols are built to be shattered — a promise of another realm, a promise disintegrating upon attainment. In its wake, from the invisible fragments, something ineffable and unassuming emerges, returning  anew, again and again.

Text by Sabrina Tamar.

Beyond Matter is organized in collaboration with The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and the Consulate General of Finland in New York through their partnership with the New Art Dealers Alliance. This collaboration is made possible with additional funding from Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Finlandia Foundation National, and The Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland.