Tomas Colbengtson
When Shapes and Shadows Speak
Goh tjoevke jïh soejvene soptseste
Vad ljus och skugga berättar
The exhibition halls on the second floor
14.09.2023 – 15.10.2023

We have the pleasure of exhibiting Tomas Colbengtson's When Shapes and Shadows Speak / Goh tjoevke jïh soejvene soptseste. Through a Southern Sámi perspective, Colbengtson explores themes such as remem­brance and colonial history on the Swedish side of Sápmi. He wants to shed light on per­sonal and co­llec­tive stories of govern­mental abuse of Indigenous peoples. The artworks deal with cultural opp­ression such as bans on Sámi lan­gua­ges, religion and reindeer herding. They deal, in particular, with the little-known his­to­rical event of the Swedish state's forced relo­cation of Sámi families from Northern Sámi to South Sámi areas in the 20th century.

Fragments from the depths of the past, such as memories from child­hood, archival material or traces in nature are redis­covered and retold. Colbengtson works mainly with screen printing and glass as a medium and uses portraits and land­scapes from old photo­graphs in addition to text in Swedish and Southern Sámi as a starting point for processing - not just an artistic sense, but also thera­peutic - and for conveying stories. He retrieves the photo­graphs from both private co­llec­tions and public archives that are related, among else, to racial biology research.

Colbengtson is known for his glass sculp­tures made with the cased glass tech­nique where images are transferred using screen printing and are encap­sulated in the glass. In addition, he exhibits a series of two-dimen­sional works where painting and photo­graphs processed through raster­ization are layered on both flat and bent glass- and metal sheets. The exhibition also shows several instal­lations where light, shadow and mirroring tell stories of invisi­bility and alienation that cons­tantly affects the individual, society and the culture.

Tomas Colbengtson (b. 1957, Tärnaby, Sweden) is a South Sámi visual artist with edu­cation from Konstfack (MFA), 1991. In the period 1998–2008 he was a resident artist at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Colbengtson is the founder of the nomadic residency Sápmi Salasta – Sápmi embraces. He has had exhi­bitions both in Sápmi, Scandinavia and inter­nationally. Since 2022 has he exhibited at Sámi Dáidda­guovddáš/Sami Center for Contem­porary Art in Karasjok, Scan­dinavian House in New York, National Nordic Museum in Seattle, Enter ArtFair in Copen­hagen, Galleri Helle in Stock­holm, Museum Cerny in Bern, Swit­zer­land, and Saemien Sijte in Snåsa, to name a few. His works have been pur­chased by, among others, the Sámi Parliament, Nord­norsk Kunst­museum, Riddo­Duottar­Museat, KORO, the National Museum, H.M. Queen Sonja's art collection and The State Council for the Arts in Sweden.

The book Faamoe (2019) about Colbengtson's artistic practice is for sale in the gallery.

The exhibition has been created in col­laboration with and with the support of Sámi Dáidda­guovddáš/ Sámi Center for contem­porary art, Karasjok.