Galleri Nicolai Wallner is pleased to present the inaugural edition of Nordic Threads, a series of exhibitions exploring practices across the Nordic art scene over the past decade. These exhibitions will trace the connective tissue between artists working in the Nordic region, attending to the preoccupations, methodologies, and material languages that have crystallized in this geographic and cultural milieu. Rather than condensing this multifaceted landscape into a neat summary, Nordic Threads emphasizes the many shapes and lines of inquiry that begin in the region. The series operates as an ongoing investigation, each iteration offering a cross-section of contemporary practices.

This first iteration of Nordic Threads will present works by four artists: Carola Grahn, Frida Orupabo, Man Yau, and Pearla Pigao.

Carola Grahn (b. 1982, Jåhkåmåhkke, Sæpmie, based in Lund, Sweden) is a conceptual artist working primarily in large scale projects involving sculpture, installation strategies, and the materialization of text and sound. Grahn’s work holds a mirror up to structures of power, politics and identity. Interested in our relationships to nature, to each other and to larger narratives, Grahn often tells universal stories from the personal lens of a woman from Sæpmie.

Carola Grahn received her MFA from The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm 2013. Grahn has recently presented solo exhibitions at Liljevalchs Konsthall (SE), Wanås Konst (SE), Röda Sten Konsthall (SE), and has exhibited at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) (US), Moderna Museet (SE), The Northern Norwegian Art Museum (NO), Gammel Strand (DK), The Buffalo AKG Art Museum (US), Helsinki Art Biennial (FI), Bergen Kunsthall (NO), Malmö Konsthall (SE), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (DK), PATAKA ART + MUSEUM (NZ), Nuit Blanche Toronto (CA) and Canadian Centre for Architecture, amongst many others. Grahn was awarded the Asmund and Lizzie Arles Sculptor Prize (2021), Aase and Richard Björklunds Foundation (2024) and completed the special commission for Archbishop Antje Jackelén for Church of Sweden (2023).

She is represented in the collections of Samiskt Kunstmagasin (NO), Moderna Museet (SE), The Public Art Agency of Sweden (SE), Mercedes-Benz Art Collection (DE), Göteborg Konst (SE), Konstmuseet i Norr (SE), Ájtte Svenskt Fjäll and Samemuseum (AIDA archive) (SE), Region Jämtland Härjedalen (SE), Östersund Municipality (SE) and the National Sami Competences Centre (NASÁG/NASAK)(NO).

Frida Orupabo (b. 1986, Sarpsborg, Norway; based in Oslo) is an artist whose practice explores questions related to race, family relations, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity. Her works collage personal and found images from online archives into wall-based works on paper, large-scale installations, and video works, intervening in the endless cycle of images that construct the Black female body, both historically and today.

Selected solo exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art – MAC/CCB, Lisbon (PT, forthcoming 2026); Sprengel Museum, Hanover (DE); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (NO); Bonniers Konsthall (SE); Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH); Museu Afro Brasil (BR); Kunsthall Trondheim (NO); Huis Marseille (NL); Portikus (DE); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (NO). Selected Biennials and International Exhibitions include the 15th Gwangju Biennial (KR); Okayama Art Summit (JP); 34th São Paulo Biennial (BR); 58th Venice Biennale; and MOMENTA Biennale d’art contemporain × VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine, Montréal (CA).

Selected awards and distinctions include SPECTRUM – Internationaler Preis für Fotografie (2025); Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship (2023); shortlisting for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2023), Joan Miró Prize (2023), and Future Generation Art Prize (2020).

Orupabo’s work is represented in the collections of Tate (UK); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (US); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL); Studio Museum in Harlem (US); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (US); Kadist Foundation (FR/US); Centre national des arts plastiques (FR); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (DK); Museo Jumex (MX); Moderna Museet (SE); mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (AT); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (NO); Finnish National Gallery for Contemporary Art Kiasma (FI); A4 Arts Foundation (SA); Marieluise Hessel Collection (US); Victoria and Albert Museum (UK), among others.

Man Yau (b. 1991, Helsinki; based in Helsinki) is an artist whose material-led practice addresses exoticization from both personal and historical perspectives; exploring the feeling of “being on display and under pressure.” Working with sculpture and installation, Yau often refers to everyday objects and situations, drawing on the cultural specificities, emotions, and connotations those materials evoke. This includes appropriated aesthetics such as Chinoiserie decoration, or larger spatial structures such as monarch gardens – places where power is represented by forcing a living symmetry.

Man Yau received her MFA from University of the Arts Helsinki in 2023 after earning an MA in Design at Aalto University in Finland. Selected solo exhibitions include Turku Art Museum (FI, forthcoming 2026); BOY konsthall (SE); Tampere Art Museum as Young Artist of the Year 2025 (FI) . Selected exhibitions and projects include the Performa Biennial 2023, New York City (US); Cité internationale des arts, Paris (FR); Sinne, Helsinki (FI); Riga Contemporary (LV); Finnish National Gallery for Contemporary Art Kiasma (FI); Vantaa Art Museum Artsi (FI); Kunsthalle Helsinki (FI); Konstepidemin, Gothenburg (SE); 198 CAL, London (UK); Galerie de l’Institut finlandais, Paris (FR); Révélations Biennale, Paris (FR); Space for Free Arts, Helsinki (FI); Design Museum Helsinki (FI); Seoul Museum of Art (KR); Ventura Lambrate, Milan (IT).

Yau’s work is represented in the collections of Aalto University (FI); City of Helsinki; Helsinki Art Museum (HAM)  (FI); Finnish National Gallery; Finnish National Gallery for Contemporary Art Kiasma (FI); Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection (FI); EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art (FI); Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park Art Collection (JP); Finnish Art Society; Art Lottery (2019, 2022); Tampere Art Museum (FI); Rafaela Seppälä Collection; Tiftö Foundation (FI)‚ City of Helsinki and Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) (completed 2023).

Pearla Pigao (b. 1984 in Lillesand, Norway; based in Oslo) is an artist, musician and craftsman working with weaving, sound installations and sculpture, often with interactive and performative elements. Drawing on her background in music, her work explores the relationship between sound and material, drawing on the commonalities between weaving and musical composition to create hand-woven textiles that materialize the ephemeral.

Pigao received her BFA and MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2015 and 2017 respectively. She has had several exhibitions nationally and internationally, which include the National Museum in Norway (NO), Finnish National Gallery for Contemporary Art Kiasma (FI), Helsinki Contemporary (FI), Kunstnernes Hus (NO), Hannah Ryggen Triennale (NO), Kunsthall Trondheim (NO), Kunstnerforbundet (NO), Norwegian Presence in Milan (IT), Kunsthall Charlottenborg (DK), Design Museum (DK), and Den Frie in Copenhagen.

Pigao’s work can be found in the collections of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Consulate General in New York (US), The National Museum of Norway, Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) (FI), KORO’s collection (NO), Nordenfjeldske Art Industry Museum (NO), Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum (NO), Sørlandet Art Museum (NO), Equinor Art Programme and the Finnish National Gallery for Contemporary Art Kiasma, among others.