Juha Sääski

Basic information

b. 1952, Helsinki
Visual Artist
Residence: Åminnefors

Contact information

Artist’s Statement

A common feature of my works dealing with relationships between an individual, the society and the main culture is the paradoxal nature of human life, a paradox in the powerstructures of individual and social demands. Tragicomicality is often the basic setting. According to Charlie Chaplin: "Life is tragic in the close up but comedy from the distance". Through satire and relating naivety and simplification as a part of the whole picture I try to avoid being too solemn. Also using those alienating elements I try to make the viewer think how the matter is linked with reality. With serious issues I bring together joyful and humorous elements as an expression of the complexity of life.
Show biography

Current information

Forthcoming solo shows:

-Tampere 2023, "The past, the present, the future", 18.11. - 18.12., photograph collages and photographs, Photograph Center/Gallery Nykyaika

-Berlin 2024, "The COVID_paintings", 27.4.-25.5. Galerie/Projektraum TOOLBOX

Group exhibitions:

Berlin 2023, "The wound",Drawings from Iran and Finland, 30.9.-21.10.  Galerie/Projektraum TOOLBOX

More information:

homepage: www.juha-saaski.fi

Bio

Juha Sääski has arranged more than 50 one-man shows in several finnish galleries ( mostly in Helsinki) and art museums and abroad, in Estonia (Tallinn) in Germany ( Ulm, Nuremberg, Berlin), he has participated more than 250 group exhibitions in Finland and several abroad: Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, DDR, Poland, Hungary. He has made many public monumental paintings, working as an art-teacher for instance in the University of Art and Design, Helsinki and Aalto-University . He has been the chairman of the Finnish Painters´Union, chairman of the Representative Body of the Artists´ Association of Finland, vice chairman of the Artists´ Association of Finland and so on... He is represented in several publications and works in several collections. Sääski has worked as a curator for several exhibitions. He is the founding member and still member of the board of Artist Cooperative TOOLBOX, which is running Galerie/Projektraum TOOLBOX in Berlin from 2012, the chairman of the TOOLBOX-board 2016-2020.