WAM Kilta Galleri: Fanny Varjo – Of Tasters, Knights and Gardeners

3/10/2025 – 1/2/2026

The health-promoting and destructive uses of poisons have both fascinated and frightened people throughout history, inspiring countless stories and myths.  Fanny Varjo’s exhibition, Of Tasters, Knights and Gardeners, which opens 03.10.2025 at WAM Kilta Gallery, draws on beliefs about poisons and poisonous plants from the Middle Ages to the present day. 

Fanny Varjo combines ceramics, wood, hair, glass, steel and metal castings in her sculptures and installations. Varjo is fascinated by the meanings embedded in the materials themselves, which add depth and tension to the works. The combinations of materials create a sense of strangeness and alienation, while at the same time prompting us to reflect and look at ourselves and the nature around us. 

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Fanny Varjo (b. 1995) lives and works in Helsinki. She graduated as a visual artist from Turku Arts Academy in 2022. Varjo is currently completing her master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki, from which she will graduate in late 2025. Fanny Varjo is a member of the Association of Finnish Sculptors and Turku Artists’ Association. 

The guiding idea of the exhibition series at WAM Kilta Gallery is to invite a writer or an author from outside the field of visual arts to work with each artist and write a text based on the theme and works of the exhibition, which will then become a part of the exhibition. The text for the Fanny Varjo exhibition was written by Vivi Varjo (b. 1992), a PhD researcher at the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Helsinki, who is interested in the popularisation of science. 

The exhibition is curated by Jonni Saloluoma, Exhibitions Curator at WAM Turku City Art Museum. The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency.