Matias Karsikas (b. 1989) is a Finnish sculptor and designer working in Billnäs, Finland. His practice exists at the intersection of traditional craft and contemporary sculpture. His works are made using glass, ceramics and natural materials, combining a material-driven approach with experimental processes.
For Karsikas, art is a form of language, a poetic way of understanding and communicating reality. His work is guided by a continuous movement towards the unknown. The process often begins when making feels new and not yet fully understood. This creates a need for renewal and a desire to avoid repetition, making the ongoing development of his work central to his practice.
Materials play an active role in his work. Karsikas believes that materials contain qualities that can be revealed through attentive working. His works emerge from a collaboration between his own hand and the nature of the materials. He develops his own methods, which are often complex and time-consuming, in order to bring these qualities forward. Glass, ceramics and naturally shaped wood are combined in ways that allow materials to reveal aspects of each other that would otherwise remain hidden. For example, hot-worked glass combined with naturally formed wood can reveal qualities in the glass that would not appear on its own.
His work explores the relationship between humans and the non-human world from a posthuman perspective. He examines how human-centered structures, such as language, design and the built environment, shape how we understand reality and define for whom the world is built. In his works, nature appears as both resilient and vulnerable within human-shaped environments, opening space for reflection and broader ways of thinking about coexistence.
Karsikas has held solo exhibitions in Finland and internationally, and his works are included in museum and private collections. He was awarded the Pro Vitrea Prize in 2023 in recognition of his contribution to Finnish glass art, and was named Young Designer of the Year in 2020. In recent years, he has focused increasingly on public commissions, creating works for both public and private sectors in Finland.