In the gallery's showroom, works by Tomas Colbengtson are currently being presented (until May 11)
Tomas Colbengtson, born 1957, is Sámi. He grew up in the small village of Björkvattnet near Tärnaby, Sweden, just south of the Arctic Circle. In his artwork, he asks how the colonial heritage has changed Indigenous lives and landscapes of the Sámi and other Indigenous Peoples. Colbengtson struggles to revitalize his mother tongue, the South Sámi language. He works with visual art, using Sámi history and collective memory as the source of his art.
He is continuously experimenting with new forms of media and materials, from overlay glass and metal printing to etching and digital art forms. This way, he seeks to assemble a language to formulate loss and colonial oppression and to revive and revitalize Sámi identity.
>> See available works by Tomas Colbengtson
Galleri Helle Knudsen has had a long collaboration with Tomas Colbengtson and has on two occasions shown duo exhibitions together with Britta Marakatt-Labba but also in solo exhibitions, the latest one in spring 2022. The same year, we presented his work at Market Art Fair in Stockholm and in 2023 at Enter Art Fair in Copenhagen. The next solo exhibition at Galleri Helle Knudsen will be in autumn 2025.
- News about Tomas Colbengtson
Tomas Colbengtson is the 2024 recipient of the Queen Sonja Print Award. The award ceremony is held in Bodö, Norway, at the beginning of June. Other award recipients are Anselm Kiefer (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Maria Kayo Mpoyi (Inspirational Award).
In the Hjärtahjärna exhibition at Liljevalchs+, Tomas Colbengtson's work Tvångsflyttade is currently on view. The exhibition presents a selection of Marika and CG Wachtmeister's exstensive art collection.
Tomas Colbengtson is currently on view in two exhibitions at American Swedish
Institute in Minneapolis (US); a duo exhibition, Mygration (with Stina Folkebrant) and with the touring group exhibition Arctic Higways: Unbounded Indigenous People (with Britta Marakatt-Labba, among others). The exhibition has previously been shown in Washington, Chicago, New York and Seattle (US), as well as Whitehorse (Canada). After Minnepolis, it continues to tour to e.g. Santa Fe (US) and Snåsa (Norway).
