Villit

In the 1980s, the city of Kuopio emerged as a dynamic hub of artistic energy, bringing together a generation of young painters fresh from art school. Dubbed the “Kuopio School” by the press, its leading figures – Markku Kolehmainen (b. 1951), Pentti Meklin (b. 1952), Pauno Pohjolainen (b. 1949), and Teemu Saukkonen (b. 1954) – drew inspiration from continental European trends. Figurative painting had returned with force through German Neo-Expressionism and Die Neuen Wilden (“The New Wild Ones”), and the Kuopio artists channelled that spirit into a bold, confrontational style that electrified the local art scene. Their rise coincided with an economic boom that fuelled unprecedented demand for art: paintings grew to monumental scale, galleries flourished, and public commissions abounded. Yet the exuberance of the era — and the brief heyday of the Kuopio Wild Ones — was cut short by the recession of the early 1990s.