Carola Grahn discusses her works in the exhibition ‘Nordic Threads’, a group exhibition at Galleri Nicolai Wallner.

Grahn makes material the tensions between inner and outer landscapes of contemporary Sæpmie by etching daily, constant, and mundane vignettes onto objects that encapsulate prized and deeply connected ancestral traditions of doudji. The work is one of many dualities: The knife, both a tool for domestic work and a weapon; the table a place for gathering and for conflict; each line in the poem holding within it a romanticism and a tedium.

In this way, ‘Luhkietjijhtje nejpieh (Seventeen Knives)’ creates an image from which the viewer can catch both shadow and light from the material of their own lives, refracting off that which builds the day-to-day.

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).

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