The exhibition Call to the Wild should have opened on Sunday 22nd March, but due to the global situation with COVID-19, we’re postponing the exhibition and hoping to open it during the summer months in 2020. Meanwhile, you can read about the artists Laura Laine, Kustaa Saksi, and Kim Simonsson, whose works are the heart of this exhibition.
Call to the Wild gathers three Finnish contemporary artists and designers at Maison Louis Carré, a unique building designed by Alvar Aalto. The exhibition presents a refined combination of contemporary sculptural works by the glass artist Laura Laine, the textile artist Kustaa Saksi, and the sculptor Kim Simonsson.
While working with different materials, the artists have a common material approach, presenting works with a three-dimensional feel that perfectly fit with the characterizing organic, functionalist atmosphere of the Aalto-designed surroundings.
Laura Laine (born 1983) is a Helsinki-based visual artist and illustrator with her own distinct and recognizable style. She is particularly known for her surrealistic hand-drawn female figures. In addition to illustration, she has also been working with glass since 2013 in Finland, the Netherlands and Czech Republic. Her works are unique pieces of art, made of hand-blown glass that enhances the colour of materiality and immateriality. Her works have been exhibited in Dubai, Tokyo, New York, London, Los Angeles and Helsinki, among other locations. Laine’s CV lists a great deal of work for international magazines and companies such as Vogue, Givenchy, Elle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Harvey Nichols and more. She also collaborates frequently with Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio, and has received multiple awards. Laura Laine is represented by Spazio Nobile, Brussels.
Kustaa Saksi (born 1975) is a Finnish artist and designer based in Amsterdam. Kustaa specialises 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. Combining organic qualities with detailed textures, rich colour palettes and experimental material use, Saksi creates contemporary spaces, objects, and atmospheres. He has spent the past seven years at TextielLab in Tilburg, The Netherlands, where he has been developing weaving techniques, experimenting with materials and finding his own unique weaving processes that he describes as “action-painting with warp and weft”. Saksi’s works have been exhibited at Victoria & Albert Museum, Cooper Hewitt Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, TextielMuseum, Design Museum Helsinki, and more. He has held solo exhibitions at galleries in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Taipei, Madrid, Brussels, Helsinki, and Amsterdam. Saksi has also produced commissioned artworks for companies such as Nike, Issey Miyake, Ferragamo, Lacoste, Bergdorf Goodman, Marimekko, and Swedese. Kustaa Saksi is represented by Spazio Nobile, Brussels.
Kim Simonsson (born 1974) is an award-winning Finnish-Swedish sculptor living and working in Finland. His life-size creations evoke an imaginary world entirely populated by children. Seized by ice, covered with moss, these figures gradually transform into elements of nature. His sculptures can be found in many public and private collections, such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Arario Museum, the Pizzuti Collection and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. Kim Simonsson is represented by Galerie NeC Nilsson et Chiglien in Paris, Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki and Jason Jacques Gallery in New York.