11.12.2025-07.01.2026
Artist: Alysia Mentula
As the year’s artistic journey at GAP Window continues, we are proud to present our fourth exhibition, Creations of the Nordic Folklore and Other Abominations, featuring the imaginative and haunting digital works of Alysia Mentula. Following the energy of We Flow and the reflective warmth of our earlier exhibitions this season, GAP WINDOW now shifts into the realms of myth, fantasy, and the eerie unknown.
About the Artist
Alysia Mentula is a digital illustrator with a background in concept art, graphic design, and UX/UI. Her artistic path took a transformative turn when she became enchanted by the whimsical, often monstrous worlds crafted within tabletop gaming cultures. What began as personal commissions and book illustrations soon expanded into a deeper creative pursuit! One that brings creatures, characters, and entire worlds to life.
Whether illustrating tender companions or scenes steeped in terror, Alysia’s work reveals a rare ability to translate narrative into vivid, breathing imagery. Her understanding of world-building stems from working with character and creature “stat-blocs,” drawing inspiration from universes such as Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, and other narrative-driven gaming systems. These frameworks shape not only the personalities of her subjects but also their physical form, essence, and the lore they inhabit.
Some works emerge from richly detailed descriptions such as the Selkie Sirens of Lake Saimaa (2023), while others begin with nothing more than a single paragraph of apocalyptic narrative, as in The Hunger (2024), a chilling vision of a world undone by a super-computer virus. Across her portfolio, genres stretch from the lighthearted charm of Feywild creatures to valor-lit fire swords and ominous monstrosities that break the laws of nature itself.
With her artwork featured in or on the covers of eight novels and gameplay guides, Alysia continues to expand her imaginative library, where research, intention, passion, and storytelling all converge.
About the Exhibition
Creations of the Nordic Folklore and Other Abominations brings together Alysia’s fascination with creatures both familiar and fearsome. Inspired by Nordic myths and the darker corners of imagined worlds, the exhibition invites viewers into a playful yet unsettling visual encounter.
In the GAP Window, these digital beings stand suspended. Beckoning, taunting, and daring the passerby to step closer. The work encourages interaction through the tension of attraction and fear: the draw toward the monstrous, the curiosity toward the unknown. As each creature reveals itself, spectators are invited to confront their own relationship with myth, imagination, and the beautifully strange.
This exhibition continues GAP’s mission to transform public space into a site of artistic dialogue. This time through portals into folklore and fantasy, right in the heart of Kamppi, Helsinki city.
GAP WINDOW is a window exhibition project initiated by Globe Art Point in 2021. The concept was created for the members of GAP Creatives Database with an aim to provide a unique opportunity to exhibit and/or experiment with their own artistic work and ideas.
Our window is visible from the street, you do not need a special access to see it.