Paavo Paunu’s Seven Seas and Eight Tears on Display at Rauma Art Museum from 9 May 2026
News
Visual artist Paavo Paunu’s exhibition Seven Seas and Eight Tears will be on display at Rauma Art Museum from 9 May to 4 October 2026. The exhibition features Paunu’s paintings, sculptures, and installations. The oldest work on view dates back to 1995, alongside new pieces created especially for this exhibition.
– Paunu has lived and worked in Rauma since 1999, and his work has been a significant part of the region’s art scene. His works are highly physical – the paintings even extend beyond the wall surface – while also being strongly narrative. They are further characterised by a rich and pleasurable use of colour across the full spectrum, says Taina Myllyharju, Chief Curator.
Paunu’s public artworks can also be seen in Rauma at the foyer of the Rauma Theatre, the reading room of the Rauma Main Library, and the Kari kampus. In addition, the work Puusta pitkään is part of the permanent Heart of Pinnala collection exhibition at Rauma Art Museum.
– Over the summer, the exhibition will be complemented by an outdoor installation in the Pinnala courtyard, a video work shown in the Makasiini building, and a performance by the Ilomiehet artist group on Finnish Visual Arts Day, 10 July 2026, Myllyharju adds.
At the Intersection of Imagination and the Senses
In Paunu’s art, imagination and the senses meet.
– The works can genuinely be said to embrace worlds. They chart the boundaries of the known world, where the senses encounter meaning, perception meets imagination, and material meets form, explains Harri Laakso, PhD, curator and long-time expert on Paunu’s work.
The artworks emerge from a meditative and carefully considered painting process. The visual world of the works unfolds gradually for the viewer, without a clearly defined narrative, through movement, scale, and visual allure.
