Kustaa Saksi - Cosmos

Kustaa Saksi: Cosmos

by Jessica Hemmings and Niina Tanskanen

Based in Amsterdam, Kustaa Saksi (b. 1975, Kouvola, Finland) is renowned for his large textile tapestries that explore the essence of the universe through vibrant psychedelia and colorful surrealism.  

Creating 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.

Cosmos looks back at an important chapter in Saksi’s career – his textile art, made between 2012–2023. In his tapestries, he takes us on a journey through transitional, eerie spaces that emerge between the imagined and the real, sleep and wakefulness, madness and sanity.

Jessica Hemmings is the author of The Textile Reader, Cultural Threads, and Warp & Weft. She is currently Professor of Craft at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Visiting Professor at Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design, Budapest.

Niina Tanskanen is an art critic, located in Finland. 

Garret Publications, 2023, hardcover, 8 x 10 inches,187 pages.