Britta Marakatt-Labba, born in 1951 and raised in a reindeer-herding family in the Lainovuoma Sámi village, began her artistic career in 1979 after completing her studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in Gothenburg. In 1978, she helped found the Masi Group and the following year was involved in establishing a Sámi artists’ organization. During the 1980s, she participated in the Alta protests and depicted the events in the well-known work The Crows (1981).

Today, she lives and works in Övre Soppero and has been active as an artist for over 40 years. Her international breakthrough came in 2017 when her 24-meter-long embroidery Historjá (2003–2007) was shown at the prestigious contemporary art exhibition Documenta 14. In March 2025, Artnews magazine named the embroidery one of the 100 best artworks of the 21st century, placing it at number 35. Her life and artistic work have been portrayed in the film Historjá – Stitches for Sápmi (2022).

Britta Marakatt-Labba has received several awards, including the Gannevik Scholarship (2015), Illis quorum (2017), the Stig Dagerman Prize (2019), the Prince Eugen Medal (2020), and the Hazelius Medal in Gold (2024). In 2022, she was portrayed by Maja Helander for the annual honorary portrait in the National Portrait Collection, the same year she was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Bergen and participated in the main exhibition The Milk of Dreams at the Venice Biennale. In 2024, her major retrospective Sylkvasse Stitches was shown at the National Museum in Oslo, and in March 2025, the exhibition received the Norwegian Art Critics’ Prize 2024. In October 2024, the exhibition continued at the KIN Museum in Kiruna, where it was on view until March 2025. From June to November 2025, Moderna Museet in Stockholm presented the exhibition Where Each Stitch Breathes.

Current exhibition:
Stitched Tracks, solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany, January 30 – July 26, 2026