Publications (editor and /or writer):

Close-up of a beige fabric-covered book with red text on the front cover, with the title "Crossing Borders" and the author's name, Magdalena Abakanowicz, in uppercase letters. An exhibition book in Helsinki art museum

Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crossing Boundaries

  • Authors: Eulalia Domanowska, Marta Kowalewska, Emma Lilja, Satu Metsola, Arja Miller
  • 2026
  • Languages: Finnish and English
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Size: 26.5 x 21.5 x 2 cm
  • Pages: 188
  • Publisher: HAM Helsinki Art Museum
  • Editors: Emma Lilja & Satu Metsola
  • Graphic Design: Tuija Tarkiainen / Studio Kiss
  • ISBN: 9 789525939576

A booklet titled 'Helsinki Biennial 2025 Shelter' with a cover image of green moss-covered rocks and water.

Helsinki Biennial 2025 Shelter

The theme of Helsinki Biennial 2025, Shelter: Below and Beyond, Becoming and Belonging, invites new ways of thinking to help us build, through art, shared, protective spaces and foster positive action to address biodiversity and the climate crisis.

Featuring 37 artists and artist collectives, the biennial challenges human-centerred perspectives by foregrounding more-than-human agencies as protagonists and promoting awareness and compassion for our fellow living creatures and our shared planet. 

  • 2025
    Languages: Finnish and English
  • Binding: Softcover
  • Pages: 175
  • Publisher: HAM Helsinki Art Museum
  • Editors: Sanna Juntunen & Satu Metsola
  • Graphic Design: Tuija Tarkiainen / Studio Kiss
A yellow hardcover book titled 'Vapaa Taidekoulu' with black geometric lines on the cover, placed on a plain white surface.

Vapaa Taidekoulu | Fria Konstskolan | Free Art School

Taidemaalauksen opetusta 90 vuotta | Måleriundervisning i 90 år | Teaching Painting for 90 Years

  • 2025

  • 210 x 280 mm, hard cover

  • 208 pages

  • Authors: Meri Karppanen, Elina Merenmies, Satu Metsola, Juhani Pallasmaa, Magnus Quaife, Riikka Stewen, Juha-Heikki Tihinen

  • Editor: Pirkko Tuukkanen

  • Layout Ilona Ilottu

  • Finnish, Swedish, English

  • ISBN 978-952-7611-01-2

  • Free Art School & HAM Helsinki Art Museum

  • Publisher: Parvs

The cover image for Helsinki Biennial 2021 features dark stormy clouds over water with large white numbers 2021, and text indicating the event is held in Helsinki, with the phrase 'Sama meri'.

Helsinki Biennial 2021 The Same Sea

  • The official catalogue of Helsinki Biennial 2021 features all the participating artists, artist interviews, artwork sketches, an essay by the head curators on the biennial’s themes, as well as a previously unpublished short novel by author Emmi Itäranta.⁣

    The catalogue also includes a publication containing photographs of each of the works of Helsinki Biennial 2021 on Vallisaari, and the documentations of the installations located around the city. The works were documented during May and June, just before the biennial opened to the public.⁣

  • 2021

  • Finnish and English

  • 389 pages

  • Publisher: HAM Helsinki Art Museum

  • Editors: Satu Metsola, Sanna Tuulikangas

A person holding a white book titled "I (am)" by Pawel Althamer. The cover features a partial face of an older man with gray hair, a beard, blue eyes, and a serious expression.
  • 195 MM × 268 MM, SOFT COVER

  • 192 PAGES

  • WRITERS: SATU METSOLA, PIRKKO SIITARI, SANNA TUULIKANGAS

  • LAYOUT: MINNA LUOMA

  • FINNISH | ENGLISH

  • ISBN 978-952-7226-40-7

  • HAM HELSINKI ART MUSEUM

  • Publisher: Parvs

  • Editors: Satu Metsola & Sanna Tuulikangas

  • 2019

  • The Polish artist Paweł Althamer (b. 1967) is well-known internationally and his works have been in several contemporary art events, including the Kassel Documenta and Venice Biennale. He often works with a variety of communities: the most important element of the art process being to play together and find a connection with another human being and with our own inner world. This volume presents Althamer’s surprizing, multiform production spanning more than three decades – sculptures, installations and and documentations of collaborative art projects. It is being published in conjunction with the artist’s solo exhibition at HAM Helsinki Art Museum.

Paweł Althamer: I (am)

A purple background with a white circle in the center containing the text 'thank you for the music' in a stylized font.

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC

  • 2012

  • Authors: Kati Kivinen, Satu Metsola, Arja Miller

  • Publisher: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

  • Artists: Adel Abidin, Petri Ala-Maunus, Eduardo Balanza, David Blandy, Candice Breitz, Susanne Bürner, Graham Dolphin, Rose Eken, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Fabien Giraud, Jenni Hiltunen, Jani Hänninen, Katarzyna Kozyra, Petra Lindholm, Liisa Lounila, Sophie MacCorquodale, Maria Stereo, Rauha Mäkilä, Kalle Juhani Nieminen, Anneli Nygren, Pink Twins, Pipilotti Rist, Bojan Sarcevic, Terhi Ylimäinen.

Open book displaying a painted figure wearing a blue and white robe and red hat, with text and other art elements on the pages.

ARS 11

  • 2011

  • Editors: Satu Metsola, Pirkko Siitari, Jari-Pekka Vanhala

  • Publisher: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

  • Graphic Design: Aki Suvanto, Such Design

  • The Finnish Book Art Committee has selected this amongst the most beautiful books of 2011:

    “A masterful achievement by the catalogue editors, and above all by the lay-out artist. An easy-to-read and stimulating entity which almost beats a trip to the exhibition. The rhythmically rich pictorial layout and insightful use of colour, respectful to the works and their makers, imaginatively open up to us the world of African art. Convincing proof of the relevance and new possibilities of the catalogue.”

Exhibition display with several large Asian masks on wooden stands, decorated with colorful facial features, against a plain background with informational text about Asian contemporary art and perspectives.

Wind from the East : perspectives on Asian contemporary art

2007, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

A book cover honoring Sigrid Schaumann (1877-1979), featuring her photograph and a stylized red logo, with her name and dates.

Sigrid Schauman 1877-1979 : valon syleilyssä

2002 Turun taidemuseo / WSOY

Publications (editor):

Open book titled 'Survival Guide for a Post-Apocalyptic Child' with a sea and rocky landscape on the cover, and scattered pages with text in various languages against a black background.

Nastja Säde Rönkkö: Survival Guide for a Post-Apocalyptic Child

  • 2024

  • Format 120×170 mm

  • Pages 123 + 155

  • Language English

  • Publisher HAM Helsinki Art Museum

  • Design Viivi Prokofjev

  • Editors Nastja Säde Rönkkö, Satu Metsola

  • The piece was originally produced by the Lönnström Art Museum as part of the Lönnström project series in the fall of 2022. The renewed ensemble that can be seen now has been curated by HAM curator Satu Metsola and exhibition manager Kati Kivinen. At HAM, the whole is completed by a new series of sculptures, paintings and a soundscape designed by Timo Kaukolampi. In connection with the exhibition, the English-language book Survival Guide for a Post-Apocalyptic Child is published in cooperation with the artist and the Lönnström Art Museum.

  • The Finnish Book Art Committee has selected this book as the most beautiful books of 2024

  • Grafia’s non-profit Vuoden Huiput is Finland’s most significant creative design competition. Prize: 2024 Hopeahuippu, Julkaisut

A colorful book cover featuring a close-up illustration of a man's face with an open mouth, holding a surprised expression, with a swirling, vibrant background of reds, oranges, and yellows. The title is in large, bold white letters at the top, with additional text in smaller white font below.

Erkkilys Pirtomas Suomen taidetta pelastamassa.

  • 2023

  • 210 x 255 mm, hard cover

  • 160 pages

  • Writer: Veli Granö

  • Cover Design: Veli Granö

  • Layout: Ville Karppanen

  • Editor: Satu Metsola

  • Language: Finnish

  • ISBN 978-952-7441-56-5

  • HAM Helsinki Art Museum

  • Publisher Parvs

  • 2023

    Erkki Pirtola (1950–2016) was a bohemian influencer and tireless advocate of marginal art. He was also a talented artist himself, as well as a mystic and a prominent Finnish thinker. He saw enormous potential for social change in art and was a great believer in the Beuysian theory of “social sculpture” – the idea that everyone is an artist and that life is a social sculpture that all humanity helps to shape.

Cover of a book titled 'Stories of Finnish Art' featuring a collage of various Finnish artists' portraits and artworks.

Stories of Finnish Art - The New Ateneum Guide

  • Hatje Cantz Verlag

  • 2016

  • Edited by: Ateneum Art Museum / Finnish National Gallery. Susanna Petterson, Anu Utriainen, Satu Metsola

  • Designed by: Maria Appelberg/Station MIR

  • Texts by: Erkki Anttonen, Timo Huusko, Maritta Mellais, Riitta Ojanperä, Hanna-Leena Paloposki

  • English / Finnish / Swedish

  • March 2016, 263 Pages , 267 Photos

  • softcover

  • 141mm x 221mm

  • A must-have for anyone interested in art history and the stories of Finnish art!

  • The Ateneum Art Museum—the most frequently visited museum in the country—holds Finland’s oldest and largest art collection. This new beautifully illustrated book looks at the collection through a social lens, addressing how historical and political events have influenced art and artists as well as museum work and acquisitions for the collection. Starting with the year 1809, the storylines run through to the seventies. In addition, it covers the story of the Ateneum building itself as the center of the Finnish art scene for the last 127 years, not only the home of collections but also of two significant art schools. The catalogue offers readers sixteen newly commissioned thematic articles written by museum specialists along with five short stories by contemporary Finnish author. (English edition ISBN 978-3-7757-4135-4; Finnish edition ISBN 978-3-7757-4137-8)

A beige book a black spine and the words "HORROR VACUI" printed at the bottom. Featuring works of Markus Copper, Finnish artist.

Horror Vacui

  • Markus Copper, Jari Haanperä & Kimmo Schroderus

  • 2009

  • Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

  • Editors Satu Metsola, Arja Miller

  • English and Finnish

  • 127 pages

Book cover titled 'Full House' with a dark background and an abstract image of a glowing rectangular object.

Full House: The Kouri Collection and American Minimalist Adventures

2008

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

Finnish and English

Soft cover

Editors Satu Metsola, Arja Miller

Features works from the Pentti Kouri Collection and the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

A framed painting of a woman with blonde hair and wearing a blue outfit, with a distorted face that appears to be split horizontally, creating a warped effect.

Julian Schnabel – The Conscious Gaze of Frightened Young Nuns

  • 2008

  • Published by Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki

  • 117 pages
    Softcover
    English and Finnish
    ISBN-13 : 978-9515330413 

  • Texts by Berndt Arell, David Salle, and Marja Sakari.

  • Editor Satu Metsola

  • This catalogue was published on the occasion of Julian Schnabel: The Conscious Gaze of Frightened Young Nuns at Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland, 2008.