NON-ESSENTIAL took place on 20 August 2026. This is the preview we published before the night, with the full artist line-up at the end.
On 20 August 2026, Atom Toys Studios takes over Föreningen Luckan in Helsinki for NON-ESSENTIAL, a one-night exhibition of art toys, sculpture, prints, ceramics, sound and things that are much harder to categorise.
And most of it can't be added to cart.
There is no restock button. No notification list. No guarantee that another edition will appear a month later.
Some of the works at NON-ESSENTIAL Art Toy Exhibition exist for one night, in one room, during Helsinki Night of the Arts 2026.
Once they're gone, they're gone.
So, what's actually going to be in the room?
Journey Postcard
The prints that started it all
For the first time, Nigel Goh's Anatomy series comes to A2.
Four studies explore the characters at the heart of Atom Toys:
Joy Boy. Miss Bliss. Snack Jack. Soda Ranger.
The Anatomy works strip each character down to the idea underneath it: the void, the object inside it, and the small moment of joy that keeps everything moving.
Alongside the prints will be Joy Boy OG and Echo Art Toy, only one of each.
For collectors who have followed Atom Toys from the beginning, this is a chance to see the drawings, objects and characters occupying the same space.
The Sound of Mymbá Street, CD by Martín Acuña Mendes
Four species, three colors each
Paraguayan sculptor Mainu Yinoot brings four new character lines to Helsinki, created around endangered and overlooked species. Each animal appears in three limited colourways.
The works are part of Mymbá Street, a project built around a simple thought:
They're still here. We just stopped looking.
The void appears in the animals' eyes, turning absence into something you can't quite ignore.
For NON-ESSENTIAL, these characters move beyond their original forms into new wall sculptures and collectible objects created specifically for the exhibition.
Wood, carved into void
A hand-carved skateboard and canvas work explore emptiness through wood, surface and physical form. Not emptiness as something abstract. Something you can actually hold. The work asks a question that runs quietly through much of NON-ESSENTIAL:
What does a void look like when it becomes an object?
Hand carved skateboard by RCK CND.
Super Mecha Boy by Alex Markwith
Two sculptures, closer to fine art than toy
Alex Markwith brings Liberty Lamenting the World and Super Mecha Boy Echo.
They share a visual bloodline with designer toys and character art, but calling them collectibles doesn't quite explain them. These are sculptural works first. Characters second.
They sit in the strange space that makes art toys interesting in the first place, somewhere between design object, sculpture, storytelling and play.
Miss Bliss x Yoshihito Suzuki by Yoshihito Suzuki
Japanese artist Yoshihito Suzuki returns to Joy Boy and Miss Bliss through his own material-driven practice. His limited editions transform discarded materials into new objects, connecting Atom Toys' characters with a question that repeatedly appears throughout Yoshihito's work:
What do we consider valuable?
And what happens when something discarded is given another life?
These collaborations are small in editions of one and won't become permanent editions.
Mini Bunbun by Liisa Tuulikki
Ceramics made to leave hand to hand
Liisa Tuulikki's BUNBUN world arrives in ceramic form.
Full sculptures. Minis. Wall pieces. Smileys.
Small objects with the imperfections, surfaces and personality that only come from something shaped and finished by hand.
Many of Liisa's pieces are pickup only, meaning they won't be boxed up and shipped later.
Someone chooses one. Someone carries it out of the room.
That's it.
Manufacturing Joy by Evelyn Virteve
An artwork that stays in the room
Evelyn Virteve brings an art installation created for NON-ESSENTIAL.
Unlike many of the works in the exhibition, this one isn't for sale. It exists as part of the space itself, something to encounter rather than collect.
For one night, it becomes part of the atmosphere of the exhibition and then disappears with it.
Zargon - An original character by Shotgun Karaoke.
Small enough to pocket
Not everything at an art exhibition needs a four-digit price tag.
A big part of NON-ESSENTIAL is making collecting art feel approachable.
Joy Boy Mini returns in six colourways.
Mymbá Street appears as collectible magnets.
The project also moves into sound through a Mymbá Street CD by Martín Acuña, turning the world of the characters into something you can listen to as well as look at.
Shotgun Karaoke brings a shelf of resin customs, each carrying the unmistakable marks of something made outside mass production.
Some pieces are sculptures. Some fit in your hand. Some fit in your pocket. They're all part of the same room.
The one artwork you make yourself
There is one thing at NON-ESSENTIAL that won't exist when the doors open.
Yours.
Every visitor can pick up a free NON-ESSENTIAL exhibition zine while supplies last.
Flip it over and the back cover becomes a surface for the exhibition's live screen-printing station. Choose it. Print it. Take it home. The object you leave with didn't exist an hour earlier. And no one else's will be exactly the same.
More than an art toy exhibition
NON-ESSENTIAL isn't only about objects sitting on pedestals.
Next door at Amos Café, the exhibition continues with music from DJ Jope, screen printing, a mirror installation, space to hang out and the people behind the work.
The idea behind the exhibition is deliberately simple.
Art toys aren't necessary. Neither is music.
Neither is making things, collecting strange objects, dancing, drawing, printing, or spending an evening talking to someone you didn't know when you walked in.
But perhaps "necessary" isn't the best way to decide what matters.
Art. Play. Music. Connection.
Non-essential, perhaps. Human, undoubtedly.
What can be purchased, picked up or shipped?
Most available works can be purchased at the exhibition and shipped within Finland after the event. Selected works will be marked pickup only and must leave with their collector that evening. Quantities vary between artists. Some pieces are unique works. Others exist as extremely small editions. There is no guaranteed restock. There is no second run of final editions.
If a piece finds its person on 20 August, that's where it goes.
The ten artists of NON-ESSENTIAL
Nigel Goh is a Singapore-born multidisciplinary artist based in Helsinki and the co-founder of Atom Toys. His work is guided by a single idea: the void, and the small joys that fill it.
Alex Markwith is a Helsinki-based visual artist whose practice combines abstract painting, collage, and street art influences, exploring power, mortality, and transformation through contemporary visual narratives.
Mainu Yinoot is a Paraguayan-born visual artist and sculptor based in Helsinki, creating playful characters across digital and physical mediums that invite connection while raising awareness of endangered species and overlooked realities.
Martín Acuña is a Paraguayan sound artist based in Helsinki who builds immersive soundscapes through synthesis, hardware, and experimentation, transforming listening into an experience of atmosphere and emotion.
Evelyn Virteve is a Finnish artist and world builder working across sculpture, stage design, and game art, creating environments shaped by form, light, and atmosphere.
Rck Cnd (Rock Candy) is a Helsinki-based mixed media artist and game developer who works primarily with wood, transforming complex structures into calm, symbolic landscapes and abstractions inspired by nature and space.
Elias "Ilja" Erävalo is a Finnish artist and tattooist born in Pune, India, whose creative journey spans painting, music, graffiti, and digital art before finding its home in tattooing.
Shotgun Karaoke is a Helsinki-based toy maker creating resin art toys inspired by music, action figures, graffiti, and kaiju culture, blending DIY craftsmanship with collectible culture.
Liisa Tuulikki is a Helsinki-based artist and designer creating ceramic art toys and paintings through her project BUNBUN, combining storytelling, collectibles, and porcelain craftsmanship inspired by joy and curiosity.
Yoshihito Suzuki, born in Tokyo and based in Barcelona, works with discarded everyday objects to explore the relationship between the artificial and the natural, the sacred and the vulgar, the past and the present.
