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  About  








Kustaa Saksi is a Finnish artist and designer based in Amsterdam, specialising in graphic storytelling through patterns, textile art and installation. Ideas of nature seen from the abstracted edge of perception pervade all of Saksi’s work.




Saksi (b. 1975, Kouvola, Finland) builds worlds of playful, paradoxical and troubling yet inviting shapes and environments pulled out of the ordinary. Combining organic qualities with uniquely detailed textures with rich colour palettes and experimental material use, Saksi is interested in creating contemporary spaces, objects and atmospheres. His abstracted Hypnopompic tapestry series sits somewhere between the states of dreaming and awakening – surrealist and sensational. Using traditional jacquard weaving techniques, he combines natural fibres such as mohair, alpaca, cotton and wool with rubber, metal, acrylic and phosphorescent yarns to create complex digital to analog textures.

Saksi’s works have been exhibited at Victoria & Albert Museum, Cooper Hewitt Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, TextielMuseum and Kunsthall Stavanger as well as galleries in New York, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Singapore, Berlin, Madrid, Milan, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Tokyo. Saksi has produced commissioned artworks for companies such as Nike, Issey Miyake, Ferragamo, Lacoste, Bergdorf Goodman, Marimekko and Swedese.


 Video (TextielMuseum)


 Article (The New York Times)








  Selected Exhibitions  






2019 Interwoven
EMMA Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland. GS



2019 Révélations
Grand Palais, Paris, France. GS



2019 First Symptoms
Spazio Nobile Gallery, Brussels, Belgium. SS



2019 Art Brussels 2019
Tour & Taxis, Brussels, Belgium. GS



2019 Keep Your Garden Alive
Institut Finlandais, Paris, France. GS



2019 First Symptoms
Finlandsinstitutets Galleri, Stockholm, Sweden. SS



2019 Untitled Art
Embarcadero, San Francisco, USA. GS



2018 Winter Group Show
Gallery Fumi, London, UK. GS



2018 Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art

 The Former Faculty of Biology, Riga, Latvia. GS



2018 Simply Scandinavian – Nordic Design 1945–2018

TextielMuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands. GS



2018 IC-98: 2016–2018 (A World In Waiting)

Taidehalli, Helsinki, Finland. GS



2018 Collectible

Vanderborght, Brussels, Belgium. GS



2018 Artists’ Kalevala – Echoes from the Past

Kerava Art Museum, Finland. GS


2018 Echoes – 100 Years in Finnish Design
Felleshus, The Nordic Embassies, Berlin, Germany. GS



2017 Hotel Panorama

PAN Amsterdam, The Netherlands. GS


2017 Systema Naturae
Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway. GS

2017 Summer Group Show
Gallery Fumi, London, UK. GS

2017 Collecting Europe
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. GS

2017 Echoes – 100 Years in Finnish Design
POLIN Museum, Warsaw, Poland. GS

2016 Beauty
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, USA. GS 

2016 Hypnopompic
Centro Cultural Inca Garcilaso, Lima, Peru. SS

2016 Objects of Desire
Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland. GS

2016 Porto Cervo 2016
Gallery Fumi, Porto Cervo, Italy. GS

2016 Woolgathering
Usagi Gallery, Hong Kong. SS

2016 Beauty – Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial
Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, NY, USA. GS

2016 Hypnopompic
Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia,
Madrid, Spain.

2015 Hypnopompic
Bergdorf Goodman, New York, NY, USA. SS

2015 Hypnopompic
MUMEDI Design Museum, Mexico City, Mexico. SS

2015 Muna/Egg
Light installation at Het Stadsmus, Hasselt, Belgium. SS

2015 Hypnopompic/Reveille
Siu Siu, Taipei, Taiwan. SS



2015 Muna/Egg
Light installation for Lux Helsinki, Finland. SS

2014 Hypnopompic
Helsinki Music Centre, Helsinki, Finland. SS

2014 Muna/Egg
Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Germany.

2014 Hypnopompic
Le Botanique, Brussels, Belgium. SS

2014 The Soft House
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy. GS




2014 Hypnopompic
TextielMuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands. SS

2014 Hypnopompic
Centrocentro, Madrid, Spain. SS

2013 Hypnopompic
Artifact Gallery, New York, USA. SS



2013 Hypnopompic
Vitra, London, UK. SS

2013 Hypnopompic
Korjaamo Gallery, Helsinki, Finland. SS

2013 Being/Dreaming
KK Gallery, London, UK. GS

2013 Paper Pavilion
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm, Sweden.

2012 Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Exhibition
Los Angeles, USA. GS

2011 Bookmark 2
Zirkumflex Gallery, Berlin, Germany. GS

2010 Kustaa Saksi's Garage
Pori Art Museum's Gallery, Pori, Finland. SS

2009 Pen-Paper-Scissors
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. GS

2009 History of Nike Running
Nike Showroom 1948, London, UK. SS

2009 Beneath The Surface
Nemo, Portland, OR, USA. GS

2008 The Heroes
Maxalot Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. SS

2008 100 Pieces of Havana
Dray Walk Gallery, London, UK. GS

2008 Offpiste – In the Land of Kustaa Saksi
Old School, Singapore. SS

2008 Offpiste – In the Land of Kustaa Saksi
CCP, Manila, Philippines. SS

2008 Selected prints
The Main Post Office Gallery, Helsinki, Finland. SS

2007 Today's Art
The City Hall, The Hague, The Netherlands. GS

2007 A nice set
Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, Melbourne, Singapore.

2007 Illustrative
Espaces Commines, Paris, France. GS

2007 Illustrative
Villa Elisabeth, Berlin, Germany. GS

2006 Kustaa Saksi's Collection
La Condition Publique, Roubaix, France. SS

2006 Icebreakers
Louvre des Antiquaires, Paris, France. GS

2005 Printemps
Artazart, Paris, France. SS

2004 Kustaa Saksi
Espai Pupu, Barcelona, Spain. SS


SS=Solo Exhibition
GS=Group Exhibition








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