Ornamental Patterns

Solo Exhibition by Julia Syrzistie 14.08—18.09.26

The exhibition Ornamental Patterns is an exploration of written communication through letterpress printing, and its link to pattern making. The exhibition brings together multiple bodies of work, formed while investigating the visual qualities of text, print, abstraction and repetition.

The exhibition features three editions of the letterpress publication Ornamental Patterns: printed consecutively at S/O Helsinki (FI, 2023), TYPA Printing and Paper Art Centre (EE, 2023) and London Centre for Book Arts (UK, 2026). The publication consists of patterns made through the use of printer's ornaments: the decorative elements found amongst metal type drawers in letterpress studios. Unlike typographic forms, printer’s ornaments were created for decorative rather than communication-based purposes. Yet these metal ornaments are equally descriptive of the era and place they were made in, and the studios they now belong to. The publications therefore resemble abstracted type specimen books – often used by letterpress printers as well as contemporary type designers. Alongside the publication, multiple hand drawn patterns – also based on the ornaments – are displayed, expanding on letterpress as a printed medium, to a drawn one.

Artist Statement

Julia Syrzistie is an artist, printmaker and designer based in Helsinki. She holds an MFA in Printmaking from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (2024), and a BA(Hons) degree in Communication Design from the Glasgow School of Art (2019).

Her studio-based practice revolves around language, typography and perception of written information. What connects different areas within her work is the theme of print: design for print, printmaking, and the history of print. Syrzistie is drawn to materiality and tactility, the printed word and image and the process behind making physical objects through print. The processes she works with range from letterpress, woodblock, screen printing, drawing, publishing, artist books and experimenting with 2D and 3D sculpture. Recently, she has been exploring the ideas of text-based work as a carrier of meaning through a visual rather than a written form, with a particular interest in ornamentation and decorative aspects of typography, handwriting and lettering.

Paja Galleria is an exhibition space established in 2020 in Kalasatama's Seripaja. The gallery hosts monthly changing exhibitions. The space is free of charge for the artist holding the exhibition. Send applications to: kalasatamanseripaja[at]gmail.com

Paja galleria
 Kalasataman seripaja, Vanha talvitie 9, Helsinki


Open Mon–Fri 10–17