The exhibition WHERE ARE WE NOW at the Philara Collection in Düsseldorf offers a unique overview of the Miettinen Collection and will present it in this comprehensive form for the first time from 29 June 2025. With around 150 works by more than 80 artists, the show takes up all the rooms of the Philara Collection and opens in the spacious entrance hall with one of the core themes of the Miettinen Collection: landscape and nature. This theme marks the origins of the collection, which was founded by Timo Miettinen and his mother with a focus on 19th and 20th century Finnish landscape painting.
Abb. oben: Secundino Hernández, Lupis Ipsum #1, 2013 Gouache, Acryl, Harz. Öl auf Leinwand, 130 x 90 cm © the artist Courtesy Miettinen Collection
Since 2004, Timo Miettinen has specifically expanded the collection to include international contemporary art, which is at the centre of the exhibition. The works on display cover a period from the 1980s to the present day and offer a wide-ranging insight into the diversity of the collection.
With works by Etel Adnan, Joachim Bandau, Georg Baselitz, Amoako Boafo, Louise Bourgeois, Elina Brotherus, Miriam Cahn, Sarah Cunningham, Tracey Emin, Rainer Fetting, Tom of Finland, Oska Gutheil, Secundino Hernández, Leiko Ikemura, Justyna Janetzek, Eemil Karila, Kirsi Mikkola, Lars-Gunnar Nordström, Francis Picabia, Janne Räisänen, Aurora Reinhard, Julian Schnabel, Emanuel Seitz, Barthélémy Toguo, Tommi Toija, Lee Ufan, Stanley Whitney, u. a.
Particularly noteworthy is the collection’s focus on Finnish contemporary art, which often receives less attention in an international context. Finnish artists are given a prominent platform in the exhibition, including Elina Brotherus, Ola Kolehmainen and Tommi Toija.
The exhibition is also organised in a dynamic alternation between monographic rooms and thematically structured areas. Artistic positions of particular importance to the collection are given specially dedicated rooms, including Leiko Ikemura, Secundino Hernández, Rainer Fetting, Kirsi Mikkola, Georg Baselitz and Tom of Finland. In addition to the monographic rooms, thematic rooms condense central currents in the collection and create atmospheric dialogues between different forms of artistic expression.
WHEN?
Opening: Sunday, 29 June 2025, 2:00 – 6:00 pm
Exhibitions dates: Sunday, 29th June – Sunday 21st September 2025
WHERE?
Highlights der Miettinen Collection
in der Sammlung Philara
Birkenstraße 47
40233 Düsseldorf
