ART CENTER AHJO, SYSI-HALL; ANSSI JÄÄSKELÄINEN AND MARJO-RIITTA SASI

ANSSI JÄÄSKELÄINEN & MARJO-RIITTA SASI August 20 – September 7, 2025
DRAWINGS & PAINTINGS

This exhibition brings together artists Anssi Jääskeläinen and Marjo-Riitta Sasi, whose creative connection dates back to the 1980s and their shared studies at Kankaanpää Art School. Despite their different approaches, they are united by decades of mutual artistic respect.

Anssi Jääskeläinen
A drawer and painter, Jääskeläinen draws inspiration from all aspects of human life—past and present. His work spans personal anecdotes to world-changing moments in history. For him, the world itself is one vast subject.

Jääskeläinen, a visual artist based in Tampere, originally hails from Joensuu. He graduated as a metal artisan from Joensuu’s School of Crafts in 1985 and as a visual artist from Kankaanpää Art School in 1988. Alongside his art, he has worked in a wide range of professions including visual arts educator, teaching assistant, construction worker, driver, furniture salesman, and warehouse worker.

On his recent artistic process, Jääskeläinen reflects:
"At its purest, drawing is a meditative state or a form of communication—a strange dialogue with the work. It’s not clear who’s in charge: am I making the artwork, or is the piece shaping my understanding? I often feel like a messenger, making something visible, rather than a creator. In those moments, I feel aligned with something greater than myself—though I can't name what it is."
"To me, drawing is a form of writing—just as poetry is a form of thinking. It’s a language I try to understand, moving closer comma by comma, only for it to shift further away. This path is endless—a circle."
"I don’t make art because I always want to, or from burning passion, but because I must—somehow I need to complete my life."
"Perhaps it's simply an attempt to reveal the tenderness and rawness of being human—life stripped of spectacle and ornament."

Marjo-Riitta Sasi
Sasi is a painter whose work is based on layered forms and colors. Her paintings are non-representational and open to multiple interpretations. The exhibition features acrylic paintings spanning several years.

Living and working in Pirkkala, Sasi also studied at Kankaanpää Art School in the 1980s. She is a rare multi-talent: alongside her painting practice, she works as a seamstress, a multifunctional church employee, and a theatre professional involved in costuming, set design, and even as a prompter.

Sasi finds it deeply difficult—even impossible—to verbally explain her creative process. The thoughts and imagery that fuel her work cannot be easily put into words. Painting, for her, is a concentrated and tense state, a kind of communication between her physical self and something unseen or not immediately identifiable. In this pursuit, form and color become her language. The intensity of the process often leaves her surprised by the final outcome.

This is the first shared exhibition by Anssi Jääskeläinen and Marjo-Riitta Sasi.

Art Exhibition Opening:
19 August at 6 pm to 8 pm

Images:
Anssi Jääskeläinen & Marjo-Riitta Sasi – Poster
Anssi Jääskeläinen – The Silent Rise of the Labour Movement
Anssi Jääskeläinen – The Most Glorious Moment (drawing, oil paint, 2020)
Marjo-Riitta Sasi – Untitled
Marjo-Riitta Sasi – Untitled