Jussi Ojala + Katja Beckman Ojala | This is Where I Long to Be

We are happy to present Jussi Ojala’s and Katja Beckman Ojala’s first ever duo exhibition, titled This is Where I Long to Be.

The exhibition brings together Jussi Ojala’s heavily glazed sculptures and Katja Beckman Ojala’s abstract tapestries. The idea for the exhibition was born out of their shared interest in a place in the vicinity of their hometown – a forest pond that Ojala has revisited and documented since many years. The title does however not refer to a specific place, but rather to recreating an experience of nature or an emotional state.

In their respective work, both artists interpret and embody the untamed nature through overflowing elaborations with the material at hand; Ojala through heavy glazes that bubble and pour down the surface of his works, and Beckman Ojala through weaves that appear as if they grew out of themselves.

Katja Beckman Ojala (b. 1990) lives and works in Skara. She holds an MFA in textile art from Konstfack (2014–16) and has previously studied weaving at Kawashima Textile School, Kyoto and Handarbetets Vänner, Stockholm. Her work has been shown at Lidköpings Konsthall, Lidköping (SE), Fiberspace Gallery, Stockholm (SE), Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm (SE), Inverleith House Gallery, Edinburgh (UK), Boon Room, Paris (FR), Dunkers kulturhus, Helsingborg (SE) and Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (EE), to name a few. In 2021, Beckman was nominated for the Cordis Prize of Tapestries and in 2017 for Ung Svensk Form.

Jussi Ojala (b. 1956, Finland) lives and works in Skara, Sweden. Ojala’s work has been shown in many solo and group exhibitions around Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland, and Norway, since his 1988 debut at Galleri Lejonet in Old Town, Stockholm. His works are represented at Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg (SE), the National Museum in Stockholm (SE), Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels (BE), Fylkesgalleriet in Förde (NO), and the Public Art Agency of Sweden, as well as in many regional public collections. In 2018, he was awarded the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s ten-year working grant.