HANCOCK, Mich. (WLUC) – The opening reception for a new art exhibit in Hancock was held Thursday evening.

This exhibit is the latest featured in the Finlandia Art Gallery, located within the Finnish American Heritage Center. The exhibit, ‘Encountering the Invisible,’ features printmaking artwork from artist Jaana Erkkilä-Hill.

“They are woodcuts or linocuts,” Erkkilä-Hill said. “I also like to work with bigger installations on a wall where the stories are made out of several images.”

A Finland resident, Erkkilä-Hill is also a professor of visual arts at the University of Lapland in Finland. The artwork on display is from the last two years, but Erkkilä-Hill’s career has spanned over three decades. She says the basics of her artistic thinking are imagination and opening windows to both herself and the viewer.

“I always like people to go away slightly questioning that which have they seen and what they make out of it,” Erkkilä-Hill continued.

She also credits her father for putting her down the path of becoming an artist.

“My father used to tell me stories from his hand,” Erkkilä-Hill added. “He would tell out of his imagination and hold his hand like a page of a book and ask me, ‘Can you see it, the picture?’ That was completely invisible. And I always said, “Oh yes, I can.’ That has been my real desire–to imagine, to see, to open windows into worlds that are here and still in a way invisible in our heads, in your imagination and communicating with others.”

The exhibit will remain open for you to visit until April 16. The center is open normally during weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Copyright 2025 WLUC. All rights reserved.