Tomas Colbengtson 

Tomas Colbengtson, b. 1957 grew up in a small saemie village near Björkvattnet in Tärna, under the polar circle of Sweden. In his artwork, he asks how colonial heritage has changed Indigenous lives and landscapes, both of the saemie and other Indigenous peoples. Having lost his mother tongue south saemie language, he works with visual art, using saemie history and collective memory as the sourse to his art. He is continuously experimenting with new forms of media and material, from overlay glass and metal printing to etching and digital art forms. This way, he seeks to assemble a language to formulate the loss but also rejuvenation of saemie identity.

He is initiator of one of the first art residence for indigenous artists Sápmi salasta / Sápmi embraces. His work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions. He is represented in the new National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway and Sami-parlament Karasjok Norway.

Photo: Elisabeth Ohlson