Four Sámi Artists to Know Before the 2026 Kiasma Exhibition

The Sámi, the only recognized Indigenous people within the European Union, have faced centuries of land dispossession, forced assimilation, and cultural erasure across Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. A December 2025 truth and reconciliation commission report to the Finnish government officially acknowledged this violence, even as Sámi lands remain targeted for iron, copper, and rare earth mining under the guise of green energy. Against this backdrop, Sámi art is finally gaining institutional visibility. Four artists exemplify this surge: Marja Helander (b. 1965) uses humor in videos like 'Dolastallat' (2016) and 'In My Hand' (2025) to critique mining and myth; Sunna Nousuniemi (b. 1993) transforms ASMR into political listening spaces, as in '100 Ways to Say We' (2021), shown at the 2024 Whitney Biennial; Tomas Colbengtson (b. 1957), winner of the 2024 Queen Sonja Print Award, confronts colonial archives in his installation 'InBetween_Colonisation' at Kiasma; and Siri Baggerman, a Dutch-Sámi painter, explores fragmented identity and surveillance in works like 'The Drone' (2021). These artists will be featured in 'We Who Remain, Sámi Art in Focus' at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki from March 27 to September 6, 2026.