Jussi OJALA

June 29 - September 5, 2019

Jussi Ojala. Stumps" exhibition at Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste in 2019

Considered one of Sweden's most experienced ceramists, Jussi Ojala (b. 1956) has made a name for himself in Europe with his sculptures. "Stumps with sumptuous, bubbling enamels, always in dialogue with nature and matter. For the past fifteen years, the tree stump has been ( stumpwhich gives the exhibition its title) has become the essential form on which Ojala explores her ceramic creative process. The environment of her garden and the forests of Sweden provide her inspiration.
Over the years, Jussi Ojala's sources of inspiration have also led him to create sculptural forms evocative of branches and twigs, but for this first solo show at Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste, the choice fell on the declension of Stumps in twenty-seven variations produced between September 2018 and May 2019. According to Ojala, "The exhibition can be viewed like the pages of a diary, a deep dive into eight months of the ceramic creative process."

The moss on tree trunks and the branches that slowly rot are not always beautiful, but rot interests me. Beautiful or ugly, is it such an important distinction?" asks the artist. "My working process is complex and delicate, with perpetual surprises and problems. I challenge materials at their breaking point to achieve results that need to be understood and analyzed. It's often what at first seems an unpleasant surprise that takes me further, giving me new directions and angles. It may be a new structure or a new color that appears only after several firings. This means constant reworking and a long, slow process. What I'm looking for is often hidden and unspoken. Gradually, over time, the process reveals a myriad of new discoveries, and the question then becomes when is the goal really achieved?