Joakim Ojanen
The Part You Throw Away
JOAKIM OJANEN
THE PART YOU THROW AWAY
November 18th – January 2nd, 2022
Opening: Thursday, November 18th from 6–8pm
312 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
The Hole is pleased to announce the opening of The Part You Throw Away, a solo exhibition of recent sculpture, paintings, and drawings by Joakim Ojanen, on view from November 18th – January 2nd, 2021. This exhibition is traveling to us from the beautiful Västerås Konstmuseum in Sweden—situated in Joakim’s hometown just outside of Stockholm—and was organized by Västerås Konstmuseum’s Head Curator of Exhibitions, Katrin Ingelstedt. Västerås Konstmuseum also created a catalogue for the exhibition which will be available at The Hole. This is Ojanen’s second solo show at The Hole and comprises some of the artist’s most emotionally considerate, technically masterful and graphically outlandish works to date.
Recognized by Västerås Konstmuseum as one of Sweden’s most successful living artists, Ojanen’s mature work is the natural evolution of his love for childhood drawing, combined with adult forays into graffiti and illustration and an unflagging obsession with the ceramic form. Though he also sculpts frequently in wax followed by a casting in bronze, Ojanen favors the expressive opportunities of clay to shape his characters’ idiosyncratic eyes, noses and ears. Working without preconceptions when beginning a new form, the artist shapes with his hands the minute features and details of his cartoonish coterie, until a sense of each figure’s organic identity declares them finished. This sense of internal life is endemic in Ojanen’s sculptural works, which, for all their many imaginative variations, are each referred to by the artist as a type of self-portrait.
Ojanen’s career-defining style includes a multitude of uncanny adolescents, often boys, octopuses and dogs reading or at play, with surreal combinations of gangly limbs, duckbills, and dog ears that can seemingly allude to the awkwardness of bodies going through change. The artist’s playful imagination retains a childlike quality, which has been singularly effective at mourning, in turn, the loss of youth itself. With this aptly titled show, The Part You Throw Away, Ojanen’s work seems to turn more deeply inward, toward characters that are neither obviously human nor clearly gendered, and retain through their imaginative indeterminacy a direct connection to childlike wonder, which must often be discarded as one enters adult life.
While these new sculptural figures often appear alone—or even lonely, with eyes turned to the sky as if waiting for something—Ojanen’s paintings and drawings are teeming with friends, masterfully intertwined in a Boschian array. His two-dimensional works excellently translate the artist’s figurative style, and seem to almost overflow, brimming, alongside his sculpture, with the joys of freewheeling youth.
An opening event will be held on Thursday, November 18th, from 6–8pm following all appropriate COVID-19 precautions. The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue available for purchase at the gallery and online at http://theholenyc.com/.
Email: raymond@theholenyc.com for available works
Email: alex@olucompany.com for press inquiries
Joakim Ojanen, The World Looks Like A Different Place On The Other Side of These Glasses, I’m Not Sure I Love It, 2021. Aluminum, glass, acrylic paint, varnish, 38.5 x 18 x 22 inches, 98 x 46 x 56 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I Feel So Small Next To You, Will You Take Good Care Of Me?, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 18.5 x 11.5 x 9 inches, 47 x 29 x 23 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Night Out With The Gang, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 26 x 10 x 10.5 inches, 64 x 30 x 26 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Let Me Stand On Your Back, We Need To Get The Flower Closer To The Sun, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 13 x 8.5 x 8.5 inches, 33 x 22 x 22 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Round Pink Head With Tall Eyes And Beak, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 7 x 5.5 x 6 inches, 18 x 14 x 15 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I Just Love Looking At You, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 10.5 x 10 x 8 inches, 27 x 25 x 20 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Oooo You Can Do That? I Didn’t Know!, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 12 x 5.5 x 5 inches, 31 x 14 x 13 cm
Joakim Ojanen, What’s Your Reason For Being So Happy? 2021. Glazed stoneware, 18.5 x 9.5 x 9 inches, 47 x 24 x 23 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Last Night Was Way Too Fun!, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 12 5 x 5.5 x 7 inches, 32 x 14 x 18cm
Joakim Ojanen, This Is Probably Gonna Take A While To Fix, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 14.5 x 6 x 8 inches, 37 x 15 x 20 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I Didn’t Knew I Could Do That, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 13.5 x 10.5 x 11 inches, 34 x 27 x 28 cm
Joakim Ojanen, That Looks Really Good Man!, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 8 x 6.5 x 4.5 inches, 20 x 17 x 11 cm
Joakim Ojanen, So Many Ideas, So Little Time, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 19.5 x 6.5 x 7 inches, 50 x 17 x 18 cm
Joakim Ojanen, This Is My Safe Zone, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 19.5 x 14 x 9 inches, 49 x 36 x 23 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Whats Happening?, 2021. Glazed stoneware. 19.5 x 12 x 8.5 inches, 50 x 30 x 21 cm
Joakim Ojanen, What If There Was Something Above The Water, Something Fun, Interesting And Meaningful… Hahaha Me and My Silly Thoughts, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 21.5 x 8 x 9 inches, 54 x 20 x 23 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I’ma Try To Free My Mind, 2021. Glazed stoneware, silicone, 30.5 x 15.5 x 14 inches, 77 x 39 x 36 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I Got My Flower, I Got My Hat, Life Is Pretty Good rn, 2021. Glazed stoneware, silicone, 41 x 21.5 x 16 inches, 104 x 55 x 41 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Let’s Just Try To Have A Good Time Together, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 31.5 x 13 x 12 inches, 80 x 33 x 30 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Perhaps We Could Do Something Later?, 2021. Glazed stoneware, silicone, acrylic, varnish, 43 x 15 x 16 inches, 109 x 38 x 41 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I Don’t Feel That Well, 2021
Glazed stoneware. 23 x 11 x 10 inches, 59 x 28 x 25 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I Got So Many Regrets, You Don’t Even Know, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 23 x 8x 8 inches, 58 x 20 x 20 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Today I Will Just Focus On Growing In The Sun, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 10.5 x 7.5 x 7 inches, 27 x 19 x 18 cm
Joakim Ojanen, That Would Be Me, King Of Nothing!, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 12 x 9 x 7.5 inches, 31 x 23 x 19 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Why Do I Always Have To Be In The Back?, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 11 x 7.5 x 7 inches, 27 x 19 x 18 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Oh Boy, That Was a Shitty Day, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 19 x 11.5 x 11 inches, 48 x 29 x 28 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Tonight I’m Going Inking!, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 10 x 5.5 x 6 inches, 25 x 14 x 15 cm
Joakim Ojanen, What Was That Sound? Hold It Together Now, 2021. Glazed stoneware, 14.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches, 37 x 17 x 17 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Heavy Nose And Tired Legs, 2021. Bronze, 36 x 25 x 25 inches, 91 x 64 x 64 cm
Joakim Ojanen, The Long Walk (Small Adventures), 2021. Bronze, 21 x 21.5 x 13.5 inches, 54 x 55 x 34 cm. Edition 1 of 3
Joakim Ojanen, I’m Gonna Visit You Every Time I’m Sad, 2021, Bronze. 58.5 x 24.5 x 20 inches, 149 x 62 x 51 cm. Edition 1 of 3
Joakim Ojanen, The Long Walk (Big Adventures), 2021, Bronze. 41.5 x 45 x 25 inches, 105 x 115 x 63 cm. Edition 1 of 3
Joakim Ojanen, I’m Putting My Foot Down (Octopus on Head), 2021, Bronze. 78 x 42 x 22.5 inches, 198 x 106 x 57 cm. Edition 1 of 3
Joakim Ojanen, Welcome To The World, We Gonna Have A Blast!, 2021. Oil on linen, 79 x 59 inches, 200 x 150 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Can’t Stop Wining, 2021. Oil on linen, 19 x 15 inches, 48 x 38 cm
Joakim Ojanen, A Nice Day To Be Outside, 2021. Oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, 61 x 46 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I’m With You On This One!, 2021. Oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, 61 x 46 cm
Joakim Ojanen, What’s Going On Up There? Is There Anything I Can Help You Guys With?, 2020. Charcoal and acrylic on paper, Paper dimensions: 47 x 34 inches, 119 x 86 cm. Framed dimensions: 51 x 38 inches, 130 x 97 cm
Joakim Ojanen, A Day Like This Anything Can Happen, 2021. Charcoal and acrylic on paper, Paper Dimensions: 46.85 x 33.86 inches, 119 x 86 cm. Framed Dimensions: 51 x 38 inches, 130 x 219 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Here’s Some Flowers to Reflect Your Beauty, 2021. Charcoal and acrylic on paper, Paper Dimensions: 23.5 x 16.5 inches, 59.5 x 42 cm. Framed Dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 71 x 53.5 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Charcoal Drawing 20.09. 2019, 2020. Charcoal on paper, Paper dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 inches, 59.4 x 42 cm. Framed dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 72 x 54 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Charcoal Drawing 24.04. 2020, 2020. Charcoal on paper, Paper dimensions: 23.5 x 16.5 inches, 59.5 x 42 cm, Framed dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 72 x 54 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Charcoal Drawing 2019.08.12, 2019. Charcoal on paper, Paper dimensions: 23.5 x 16.5 inches, 59.5 x 42 cm. Framed dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 72 x 54 cm
Joakim Ojanen, I Don’t Wanna See You Sad, Please Take This Flower, We Can Do What Ever You Like!, 2021. Charcoal on paper, Paper Dimensions: 47 x 34 inches, 119 x 86 cm. Framed Dimensions: 51 x 38 inches, 130 x 96 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Charcoal Drawing 18.12.2020, 2020. Charcoal on paper, Paper dimensions: 23.5 x 16.5 inches, 59.5 x 42 cm. Framed dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 72 x 54 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Charcoal Drawing 04.08.2020, 2020. Charcoal on paper, Paper dimensions: 23.5 x 16.5 inches, 59.5 x 42 cm, Framed dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 72 x 54 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Charcoal Drawing 04.22.2020, 2020. Charcoal on paper, Paper dimensions: 23.5 x 16.5 inches, 59 x 42 cm, Framed dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 72 x 54 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Charcoal Drawing 2019.09.24, 2019. Charcoal on paper, Paper dimensions: 23.5 x 16.5 inches, 59.5 x 42 cm, Framed dimensions: 28 x 21 inches, 72 x 54 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Your Eyes, This Connection! Feels Like Someone Glued Us Together. I Know We Had A Shitty Past But Let’s Start Over!, 2019. Charcoal on paper, Paper Dimensions: 59 x 39.5 inches, 150 x 100 cm, Framed Dimensions: 61 x 44 inches, 155 x 112 cm
Joakim Ojanen, Everything is Going My Way, I’m on a Roll Hurry Up Crown Me, 2019. Charcoal on paper, Paper Dimensions: 59 x 39.5 inches, 150 x 100 cm, Framed Dimensions: 61 x 44 inches, 155 x 112 cm