Martha Diamond’s First Solo European Show Opens in Tampere

The Sara Hildén Art Museum's show opens on 19 September and runs through 17 January 2027, presenting roughly 70 oil paintings of New York cityscapes from the mid-1970s to 2008, according to Aamulehti.

Organised with the Martha Diamond Trust and gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, the exhibition traces Diamond's six-decade engagement with New York. Olivia Funk, director of the Martha Diamond Trust, supervised the installation. She said Diamond painted the city throughout her career, often sketching on the street before turning those memories into large, expressive canvases.

Funk pointed to a decisive moment in the 1970s when Diamond resolved to "find her own voice and catch the viewer's attention." That shift produced the bold, architectural compositions of the 1980s and the light-focused series around 2000.

The show also includes late black-and-white works from 2008, created after a prolonged illness affected Diamond's vision. Diamond, who died in 2023, continued to paint what she could still see.

Sarianne Soikkonen, head of exhibitions at the Sara Hildén Art Museum, said the installation presents the full arc of Diamond's practice, from small studies to large, dramatic urban canvases.