Olof Marsja (b.1986, Gällivare) works with sculptural expressions that analyse and blend uncannily the ultra modern contemporary digital reality and pop culture with history and traditions connected to his Sámi heritage and Duodji (Sámi craft). Crafts and materials are central in Marsja’s research and his works are deeply marked by the plurality of practical knowledge and references that characterise the hybrid forms with which he seriously and humorously analyses questions of history, the contemporary world and identity. Marsja holds a BFA from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts & Design in Stockholm (2017) and was a recipient of the Stena Foundation Culture Scholarship in 2023 and the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Stipend in 2019. He has recently exhibited at Gammel Strand (Copenhagen, 2024), Buffalo AKG Art Museum (Buffalo, 2024), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki, 2024), Gothenburg Museum of Art (2023), NEVVEN (Bologna, 2024 and Gothenburg, 2021), Göteborgs Konsthall (2023 and 2020), Moderna Museet (Stockholm, 2022), Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale (2022), Luleå Biennial (2022 and 2018), The Sámi Center for Contemporary Art (Karasjok, 2021), Röhsska Museet (Gothenburg, 2021), and Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm, 2019) among others. Marsja lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden.
A Potential Movement, a Movement’s Potential, and a Sudden Stillness
Aug 8 — Sep 22, 2024
Mastabatoom, Mastabadtomm
Jan 25 — Mar 24, 2024
Sleepwalking Into the Abyss
Aug 26 — 28, 2022
And Darkness the Right Hand of Light
Co-curated by NEVVEN and MELK
Apr 8 — May 1, 2022
Hypnotisk Dans Mellan Konstverken På NEVVEN
Göteborgs Posten — Aug 9, 2024
Olof Marsja
CHART Journal — Dec 3, 2022
Trapping Bears in the Sámi Highlands
MacGuffin Magazine — Aug 6, 2022
Improvisationens Politik
Konstnären — Mar 15, 2022
What if the Bear Is the Sun, and the Sun Is the Bear
Migration — Oct 23, 2021
A World Beyond
Kunstkritikk — Jun 1, 2021
Olof Marsja på NEVVEN
Konsten.net — May 21, 2021
Underfundig Samisk Samtidskonstnär
Opulence — May 17, 2021