The Ateneum in Helsinki is about to turn mystical. On 23 October 2026 it opens 'Arcana Borealis – Northern Women and Esotericism', an exhibition tracing how women artists across the Nordic countries have combined art with esoteric and alternative spiritual currents since the late nineteenth century. It runs until 28 February 2027.

Some fifty artists from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sápmi feature, in more than 200 works spanning painting, textiles, ceramics, stained glass, mosaic, metal engraving and video. The big names are here — Hilma af Klint, whose 'The Dove No. 1' (1915) from the 'Paintings for the Temple' series is a highlight, alongside Ellen Thesleff and Anna-Eva Bergman — but the show's argument is about networks as much as individuals. Af Klint and Anna Cassel belonged to The Five, a Stockholm group that explored spiritual realms through séances and meditation; Rita Kernn-Larsen, represented by 'Oasis' (1935), was one of the few women in the Surrealist movement.

The curators, researcher Nina Kokkinen and Ateneum chief curator Marja Lahelma, frame the North as a cross-border imaginative space shaped by mythology and spiritual traditions. Contemporary voices extend the line into the present: Outi Pieski's performance 'Guhte gullá / Here to Hear', made with dancers Biret and Gáddjá Haarla Pieski, draws on Sámi heritage to address centuries of assimilation and discrimination.

The esoteric turn in art history has usually been told through its men. This exhibition proposes that women were practising it all along — in séances, in craft media, and in works that treated the canvas as a channel rather than a picture.