Kustaa Saksi (b. 1975, Kouvola, Finland) has created a unique visual style. Saksi traces recurring patterns of the world by observing natural phenomena, human sensory experiences and the art and artifacts our culture has produced. With his art he has fabricated his own cosmos, one that is ever growing and expanding.
The word cosmos, meaning the universe, is derived from the Greek kosméo, which is linked to expressing an order and arrangement of a particular world with decoration and ornamentation. The very idea of cosmos is at the heart of a designer's or an artist's work that aims to create and inhabit a world of its own.
Saksi's work is an effortless mix of diverse ingredients in which polarities are being contrasted to familiar resemblance. Analog and digital are intertwined, a similar structure in natural and cultural forms is carved out, and the creative work - weaving, drawing and designing - is equated with storytelling.
Cosmos looks back at an important chapter in Saksi's career - his textile art, made between 2012-2023. In his tapestries, Saksi takes us on a journey through transitional, eerie spaces that emerge between the imagined and the real, sleep and wakefulness, madness and sanity.
Saksi's works have been exhibited at Victoria & Albert Museum, Cooper Hewitt Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, TextielMuseum, Design Museum Helsinki, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Vandalorum Art & Design Museum, Tønder Art Museum, Aboa Vetus Ars Nova in Turku, Kunsthall Stavanger and Helsinki Kunsthall. Solo exhibitions include galleries in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Taipei, Madrid, Brussels, Helsinki and Amsterdam; commissioned work includes clients Hermès, Issey Miyake, Ferragamo and Marimekko, and editions for Royal Academy of Arts and Victoria & Albert Museum. His work is represented in the collections of museums and private collectors world-wide.
