Yasushi Koyama
Metsänhaltijat
30.7.-23.8.2026
The elk has been the living spirit of the forest. Every winter its antlers fell to the ground, and every spring they grew again like the branches of a tree. In this, ancient people saw the forest’s eternal cycle of death and renewal. The antlers were trees, and the elk was the forest itself. The elk with antlers was a sacred animal in ancient Finland. The deer with antlers was the same as that in Japan.
In the exhibition, I show wood & ceramic sculptures of elk(moose), reindeer, deer and other forest animals. The Stone Age sculpture Elk’s Head of Huittinen inspired me to create my own elk head sculpture using naturally shed elk antlers found in the forest. In the artist residency in Jakobstad, I got real antlers of elk (moose) and created the sculpture “Elk´s head of Jakobstad”. I also created larger ceramic sculptures of elk, reindeer and deer with my new technique.
The title of exhibition is “Metsänhaltijat”. Metsä means forest, and haltija means, among other things, owner, protector and mythical being in Finnish. I consider a forest as a place for the great circle of life — where every being is born from the earth, returns to it in death, and rises again in new forms. I rethink of the relationship between human and nature by using a metaphor of elk and forest animals as “Metsänhaltijat” through the viewpoint of folklore, anthropology and archeology. In my exhibition, I would like to express the forest anthropology of the elk and other forest animals.
My animal figures are described “cute, innocent and humorous”. Most of my wood works are made from one piece of wood by using hand chisels. I learned traditional wood sculpturing from Maori, Ainu, Sekai and Finnish sculptors. Finnish nature, design & illustration, Finnish artists Katja Tukiainen & Kim Simonsson, and Finnish cartoon Moomin have inspired me. Similarly, the Japanese Manga, Anime, Yoshitomo Nara´s Neo-pop art have also strongly influenced on his artistic language.
Biography
Koyama graduated from Saimaa University of Applied Sciences (LAB University of Applied Sciences) as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2010 and as a Master of Fine Arts in 2016. Koyama is a member of the association of Finnish sculptors, Helsinki Artist Association, Ornamo and Kuvasto ry.
Exhibitions : Galleria AARNI, Galleria Ars Libera, Galleria Uusi Kipinä, Galleria Uusikuva, Galleria Pleiku, Galleria Becker, Auran Galleria, Annantalo, MUU Kaapeli galleria, Galleria Jangva, Napa Galleria, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf Germany, OBJEKTI 6.0 Espoo, Mäntä Art Festival, Finnish institute Paris France, Gumbostrand Konst & Form, Supermarket Art Fair Stockholm, LOKAL Helsinki.
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