WILLAS contemporary

19/10/2026

Thank you for a wonderful weekend at Oslo Negativ.

Our special thanks go to Arno Rafael Minkkinen for a generous, personal and intimate artist talk, and for taking the time to meet everyone at the book signing afterwards.

Thank you to all who stopped by, listened, asked questions, or brought a signed copy of the MINKKINEN book home with them, with his unmistakable signature: “This is a Lake, This is the Shadow of a Mountain, This is a Snake, This is a sunrise, This is a sunset”.

If you haven’t visited yet, next weekend is your last chance.

We’re at the Nasjonalgalleriet in Oslo, 23–25 October.
If you’re considering investing in an artwork by Arno Rafael Minkkinen, send us a DM.

Photographs by ON (ARE BOTNEVIK)


Arno Rafael Minkkinen Oslo Negativ

16/10/2026

ARTIST TALK + BOOK SIGNING

Arno Rafael Minkkinen, in person, at Oslo Negativ
For over fifty years, Minkkinen has placed his own body in the landscape. No assistants, no digital tricks, just a camera, a self-timer and total commitment.

This Saturday, hear the stories behind the photographs straight from the artist. Ask him anything: how they’re made, why he still does it, what the camera has taught him. Then get your copy of MINKKINEN signed.
A rare chance to meet one of photography’s true originals in person.

📍 Oslo Negativ, Nasjonalgalleriet, Universitetsgata, Oslo
🗓 Saturday 17 October, 1 pm (first come - first serve)

Opening hours this weekend:
October 16 – 14:00-18:00
October 17-18 – 11:00-18:00

Oslo Negativ runs until 25 October
A selection of works by Minkkinen are available for sale. For details send us a DM

Embassy of Finland in Norway

14/10/2026

14/10/2026

02/10/2026

One week to go...

On 10 October, we bring the work of Arno Rafael Minkkinen to Oslo Negativ. To mark the occasion, we have selected an image made in Stranda, Norway. In his own words:

”A series of islands connected by ferries take you to Geiranger Fjord, a planetary architect’s perfect concept for a natural queendom, knowing Norwegian royalty summers there. On more quotidian scales, catching the next ferry assured a speeding ticket or else watching the ferry head off as you sipped yet another expresso at yet another ferry coffee shop. For me, it was skipping the coffee with colleagues, getting out the camera and tripod, ignoring curious onlookers, working fast, and still make the ferry line. ”
– Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Arno Rafael Minkkinen — On view at Oslo Negativ (ON), 10 – 25 October 2026, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

📩 Interested in acquiring an original print by Arno Rafael Minkkinen? Send us a DM.
Read more about Arno and the exhibition ⟶ Link in bio

© Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Stranda, Norway, 2006
WILLAScontemporary

30/09/2026

A FIELD NOTE FROM ISTANBUL

212 Photography Istanbul, an international photography festival founded by Handan Yilmaz, is now in its ninth edition, invited Helene Schmitz to present A Botanical Affair (2003–2007), her close studies of plants inspired by Linnaeus and his classification of the natural world.
The venue Tophane-i Amire was built in the 15th century as the Ottoman Empire’s cannon foundry. Now soft light seeps in through the small round windows in the dome, where Helene’s close ups of flowers are beautifully presented.

A place built for war now holds flowers.

I felt that in the foundry. It is a message about why art matters, and why meeting across borders to exchange ideas and discuss our values matters when times are rough. Thank you, Banu Tunçağ and your dream team ”B”, at 212 Photography, for having us. Onwards and Upwards!

212 Photography, Istanbul
26 September – 10 October 2026

© Helene Schmitz, A Botanical Affair

23/09/2026

We are counting down the days...
This October, we bring the work of Arno Rafael Minkkinen to Oslo Negativ.
In his own words:

”I made a contract with myself about what I would not do. There would be no manipulation of any kind so that the image would correspond exactly with the reality before the lens. There would be no need for clothes in a timeless world. Nor would I photograph someone else to take my place in the photographs. No reason to put anyone but myself in discomfort or in harm’s way. To preserve my signature in the work and not make it a collaborative process, the only eye with access to the viewfinder would be my own.”
– Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Since 1969, Minkkinen has pursued a singular artistic vision: unmanipulated self-portraits in dialogue with nature and the built environment. Spanning more than five decades, his work  has taken him across 30+ countries and 30 U.S. states—forming one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary photography.

Arno Rafael Minkkinen — On view at Oslo Negativ (ON), 10 – 25 October 2026, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

© Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Kilberg , Vardø, Norway, 1990

📩 Interested in acquiring an original print by Arno Rafael Minkkinen?
Send us a DM.

Read more about Arno and the exhibition ⟶ Link in Bio

21/09/2026

A BOTANICAL AFFAIR by Helene Schmitz to Istanbul 🌸
We are happy to share that from September 26, Helene Schmitz’s exhibition, A Botanical Affair, will be on view at 212 Photography Istanbul — works in which the flower becomes both object of desire and object of scrutiny: admired, cultivated, classified and, at times, dissected.

A Botanical Affair presents works from three distinct projects by Helene Schmitz; Blow Up
(2003), The Carl Linneus Project - A Passion For Systems (2007) and Carnivores (2010). Rather
than approaching plants as subjects of beauty or scientific observation, Schmitz investigates the
cultural histories embedded within them. Her photographs draw on the long tradition of botanical
representation, from the Enlightenment’s ambition to classify and organise nature to
contemporary systems of cultivation, extraction and control—concerns that become increasingly
prominent in her later work.

Helene Schmitz will attend the opening in Istanbul.
Read more about Helene and the exhibition ⟶ Link in bio
For sales inquiries, send us a DM

© Helene Schmitz, Papáver Somniferum, 2007, (5/7)
© Helene Schmitz, Círsium Vulgáre (kopia), 2007
© Helene Schmitz, Papaver Orientalis, 2003, (5/10)

14/09/2026

SILENT GIANTS by Jan Schlegel returns to Torino. 🏛️

We are happy to share that from September 16, Jan C. Schlegel’s Silent Giants will be on view at NH Collection Torino Piazza Carlina — handmade platinum prints of Brutalist buildings from Milan to Armenia, Amsterdam to Hong Kong.

This series transcends architectural documentation. It emerges from prolonged observation — spending time with a building, waiting, watching, allowing it to unfold. Schlegel’s work is fundamentally about perception and the shift that occurs when we truly look. Many of these Brutalist structures were conceived with utopian ambition. Today, some appear abandoned or misunderstood, yet within their concrete forms lie traces of human ambition, failure, resistance, and memory.

© Jan C. Schlegel, Plate #03 - Cascades, Yerevan, Armenia, 2026
© Jan C. Schlegel, Plate #04 - Bench, Todi, Italy, 2026
© Jan C. Schlegel, Plate #16 - Quarry Bay, Hong Kong, 2026
© Jan C. Schlegel, Plate #17 - San Giovanni Bono Church, Milan, Italy, 2026

DM us for more information.

📍 NH Collection Piazza Carlina, Torino
🗓 Opening September 16 at 7 pm

11/09/2026

We are pleased to announce Impermanence and Interval, an exhibition with works by JEFF COWEN, at the Matchstick Palace in Stockholm.

This exhibition marks a presentation of the artist’s ongoing inquiry into the interplay of nature and abstraction, time and transformation. Spanning over a decade of creative practice from 2012 to the present, the selected works trace a pivotal migration between two creative chapters of Jeff Cowen - originating in his former Berlin Kreuzberg studio and evolving within his current practice in rural Provencal France.

Installed within the lived-in, human-scaled rhythm of the Matchstick Palace, the artworks step outside the traditional white cube. Highlighting the selection are several pieces previously exhibited at international institutions, including the Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography (Amsterdam), Kunsthalle Museum Bremerhaven and house.berlin.
As in the artist’s own words:

“Recontextualized within the Palace, I hope these works enter a fresh conversation with both the historic environment and the living pulse of the space.”

-Jeff Cowen

IMPERMANENCE AND INTERVAL
21 September 2026 – 15 January 2027
The Matchstick Palace, Stockholm

For more information - link in bio.
Open by appointment - DM us to book your visit!

© Jeff Cowen, P119, Diptych, 2020-2023