Capacity crowd enjoys the opening of “Tom of Finland: Dirty Frames” exhibition

Last Thursday’s opening of the comics exhibition “Tom of Finland: Dirty Frames” attracted a capacity crowd at Helsinki’s MUU Galleria, with many attendees needing to cool off outdoors. Durk Dehner, Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) president, later praised the launch as the best opening of a Tom of Finland exhibition that he had attended, with ToFF Vice President, S. R. Sharp, adding: “Everyone was laughing and totally enjoying it!”  

The exhibition is one of the highlights of the 29th Helsinki Comics Festival (this year celebrating queer artists). The festival recently posted an album of photos of the launch to its Google+ profile, including photos of Durk and Sharp:

Left to right: S. R. Sharp (ToFF Vice President); Jouni Lepistö (artist); Durk Dehner (ToFF President); Timo Soppel (Director, MUU Gallery); Laura Kokko (Project Coordinator, Finnish Comics Museum); Minna Sirnö (Director, Arts Promotion Centre Finland)

Left to right: Durk Dehner (ToFF President); Laura Kokko (Project Coordinator, Finnish Comics Museum); Solja Järvenpää (Regional Artist on Comics, Arts Promotion Centre Finland)

The outstanding crowd response also coincided with national media coverage of the exhibition by Yle, Finland’s public service broadcasting company – both in the 6pm news bulletin on Yle’s TV channel TV1 the next night and as a story on Yle’s news website.

“Tom of Finland: Dirty Frames” was organized in cooperation with Tom of Finland Foundation, Tom of Finland Seura (a Tom of Finland organisation in Finland), Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Finnish Comics Museum and The Finnish Comics Society.

“Tom of Finland: Dirty Frames” runs until September 28 at MUU Galleria, Lönnrotinkatu 33, 00180 Helsinki, Finland. Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 12-5pm, Sat-Sun 12-4pm. Map | Facebook event | Gallery phone number +358-(0)9-625 972.

Published: 2nd September 2014

Categorised in: Events, Friends of Tom