Kustaa Saksi (b. 1975, Kouvola, Finland) is an artist based in Amsterdam. His works are fields where forms hide and reveal themselves — always mid-growth, never fully caught.
Vision stops being reliable here. Figures surface and retreat. Images fragment, repeat, reassemble into something else. Thread interlaces thread until something appears, and then does not. The logic is fractal — the same structures branching at every scale, through roots and networks. Saksi has experienced migraine with visual aura since childhood, and its logic runs through the work as a system, not a subject.
Finding the right material matters as much as the image itself: paper, rubber, mohair, wool, synthetics, metal, each hiding what it is until it isn’t. Saksi has developed his large-scale woven works in close collaboration with TextielLab, Tilburg, for over a decade.
Saksi’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York; EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art; Design Museum Helsinki; and Kunsthall Stavanger, and is held in major public and private collections, including Collection Fondation Thalie, Brussels. In 2023, he was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland.
Solo and group exhibitions
2019 Finnish Cultural Institute, Stockholm, solo show First Symptoms – Art Brussels, Tour & Taxis, Brussels, Belgium with Spazio Nobile, duo show with Bela Silva – Révélations with Spazio Nobile, Galerie Collection, Grand Palais, Paris, group show Keep Your Garden Alive – Solo Show First Symptoms & The Finnish Season at Spazio Nobile
2018 The Former Faculty of Biology, Riga, Latvia. – Simply Scandinavian – Nordic Design 1945–2018, TextielMuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands. – IC-98: 2016–2018 (A World In Waiting), Taidehalli, Helsinki, Finland. – Artists’ Kalevala – Echoes from the Past, Kerava Art Museum, Finland. – Echoes – 100 Years in Finnish Design Felleshus, The Nordic Embassies, Berlin, Germany – Phantasmagoria, Spazio Nobile, Vanderborght Building, Brussels, BE /
2017 Hotel Panorama, PAN Amsterdam, The Netherlands. – Systema Naturae, Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway / Summer Group Show, Gallery Fumi, London, UK – Collecting Europe, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK – Echoes – 100 Years in Finnish Design, POLIN Museum, Warsaw, Poland /
2016 Beauty, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, USA – Hypnopompic, Centro Cultural Inca Garcilaso, Lima, Peru – Objects of Desire, Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland – Porto Cervo, Gallery Fumi, Porto Cervo, Sicily, Italy – Woolgathering, Usagi Gallery, Hong Kong. SS – Beauty – Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, NY, USA – Hypnopompic, Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia, Madrid, Spain /
2015 Hypnopompic, Bergdorf Goodman, New York, NY, USA – Hypnopompic, MUMEDI Design Museum, Mexico City, Mexico – Muna/Egg, light installation at Het Stadsmus, Hasselt, Belgium – Hypnopompic/Reveille, Siu Siu, Taipei, Taiwan, Muna/Egg, light installation for Lux Helsinki, Finland /
2014 Hypnopompic, Helsinki Music Centre, Helsinki, Finland – Muna/Egg, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Germany – Hypnopompic, Le Botanique, Brussels, Belgium – The Soft House, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy / Hypnopompic TextielMuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands –Hypnopompic, Centrocentro, Madrid, Spain /
2013 Hypnopompic
Artifact Gallery, New York, USA – Hypnopompic, Vitra, London, UK – Hypnopompic, Korjaamo Gallery, Helsinki, Finland – Being/Dreaming, KK Gallery, London, UK –Paper Pavilion, Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm, Sweden /
2012 Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Los Angeles, USA /
2011 Bookmark 2, Zirkumflex Gallery, Berlin, Germany /
2010 Kustaa Saksi’s Garage, Pori Art Museum’s Gallery, Pori, Finland /
2009 Pen-Paper-Scissors,Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK – History of Nike Running, Nike Showroom 1948, London, UK- Beneath The Surface, Nemo, Portland, OR, USA /
2008 The Heroes Maxalot Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands – 100 Pieces of Havana,Dray Walk Gallery, London, UK- Offpiste – In the Land of Kustaa Saksi,Old School, Singapore – Offpiste – In the Land of Kustaa Saksi, CCP, Manila, Philippines – Selected prints, The Main Post Office Gallery, Helsinki, Finland /
2007 Today’s Art, The City Hall, The Hague, The Netherlands – A nice set, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, Melbourne, Singapore – Illustrative, Espaces Commines, Paris, France – Illustrative, Villa Elisabeth, Berlin, Germany /
2006 Kustaa Saksi’s Collection, La Condition Publique, Roubaix, France – Icebreakers, Louvre des Antiquaires, Paris, France /
2005 Printemps, Artazart, Paris, France /
2004 Kustaa Saksi, Espai Pupu, Barcelona, Spain
Kustaa Saksi and IC-98, A World In Waiting, in the Norfolk House Music Room, V&A Museum, London, UK
Find our latest press package here.
When Migraines Lead to Art: Kustaa Saksi’s ‘First Symptoms’
Archipelago: Kustaa Saksi for the European Council
Kustaa Saksi : Herbarium of Dreams
