Kaija Hinkula Makes Signs That Are Built to Misdirect You

Ama Gallery Presents You Are Here in Helsinki

Ama Gallery presented You Are Here, a solo exhibition by Kaija Hinkula, was on view through September 6, 2026.

The artist has showcased new body of sculptural paintings built around imaginary wayfinding systems.

Several of the shaped-wood reliefs incorporate objects and hardware directly into their surfaces.

In works including Interstellar and Backpacker, these elements become part of the compositions rather than remaining separate from them. Elsewhere, freestanding and hanging objects extend the installation into the gallery space.

Writer Minna Mikkonen contributed texts on place, navigation and locating oneself, developed through a shared process and presented alongside the works. Below, Hinkula explains in her own words why getting lost became the show's organizing principle.

You Are Here - Kaija Hinkula

The exhibition and installation titled You Are Here is built around imaginary guide signs and systems of navigation, using them as points of departure for works that explore structures designed to measure, direct, and organise the world—yet gradually begin to take on a life of their own.

Their geometric language becomes an open field of experimentation, where routes and connections are continually rearranged. How do we navigate a world in which the existing order grows uncertain and familiar coordinates seem to shift beneath our feet?

This new body of work continues Hinkula's ongoing exploration of malleable geometry and the metaphorical structures of painting. Here, the symbol of the map or the directional sign no longer functions as a tool for orientation but as a speculative structure whose logic can be bent, dismantled, and reconstructed.

These markers no longer lead us straightforwardly from one place to another; instead, they misdirect, delay, and open up alternative routes. The exhibition approaches orientation as both a physical and a symbolic question.

The space created by the works invites viewers to linger in a state of disorientation and to imagine new ways of locating themselves in a world where position and the world order is not fixed but constantly renegotiated.

The exhibition is featured by writer Minna Mikkonen. Mikkonen's texts open up parallel perspectives on place, navigation, and the act of locating oneself. They form an alternative cartography—a linguistic landscape where words intersect, diverge, and discover new connections.

The show creates a space where getting lost is not an exception but a way of thinking. When familiar signs cease to function, disorientation can become the condition for new ways of thinking.

Kaija Hinkula works in the expanded field of painting, creating sculptural paintings, installations, and site-specific works. She graduated with an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki, in 2021.

Her solo exhibitions include Pragovka Gallery in Prague, HAM Gallery and Forum Box in Helsinki, and Oulu Art Museum. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions across Finland as well as elsewhere in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

In 2025, Hinkula was an artist-in-residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York, supported by the Saastamoinen Foundation and the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. In the same year, she received the shared Fine Arts Academy of Finland Foundation Prize. The exhibition and the artistic work have been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Text: Kaija Hinkula