Olga Sophie Kauppinen 

Second Hand

4.9. – 27.9.2026

Second Hand takes the familiar atmosphere of a second-hand store and turns it into a space where an object can exist in several states at once. Clothing, shoes, paintings, and constructed forms borrow the appearance of things that already exist, while simultaneously becoming something else. A piece of clothing can be printed, painted, sculpted, or represented in two dimensions; a real garment can become an image of itself, while an image can take on the presence of an object.

Adding to the visual language of ‘Second Hand’ is a fictional radio station ‘WTFX 14.4FM Radio Utopia’ playing in the background. What if the brick and stone gallery space had actually transformed into a second hand store in another dimension? What would it sound like there?

The inspiration for this exhibition comes from Kauppinen’s fascination with Quantum Physics, the nature of reality and the implication of oil painting on the human experience. Her aim is to broaden the use of painting as a language and a frequency that intermingles with the viewer.

The tongue-in-cheek ‘Second Hand’ name is also a reference to the use of an ambidextrous painting method, employing the use of the ‘second hand’, also allowing a sense of looseness and surprise in mark making.

The installation also creates a tension between the casual environment of a second-hand store and the rules of a gallery. A store invites touch, handling, trying on, and use, while a gallery asks for distance and restraint. Here, objects that appear functional are deliberately stripped of their function. Clothing cannot be worn, shoes cannot be worn or walked in, and objects become simultaneously familiar and unusable. Through oil painting, relief, sculpture, sound, and installation, Second Hand collapses the distinctions between fashion and fine art, two and three dimensions (as well as the fourth dimension), object and image, real and fabricated.