Exhibition: Britta Marakatt-Labba

For the very first time, an exhibition of Marakatt-Labba’s works on paper is being shown! Over the past decade, Britta Marakatt-Labba has made an almost astonishing breakthrough. Her embroidered stories connect the underworld, the world above and the land we walk on, in keeping with the worldview of Sámi mythology. With needle and thread, she stitches together the historical and the symbolic, transforming it all into a breathtaking odyssey. The motifs revolve around Sámi life close to nature, but also colonialism, loss and resistance—racism’s face, human greed and the animals’ lost grazing lands.

Britta Marakatt-Labba has become internationally known for her remarkable embroideries. Among the most famous is the 24-metre-long panoramic embroidery Historjá (2003–2007), which depicts the Sámi people’s life, history and worldview in tiny stitches on linen. By contrast, Marakatt-Labba’s drawings and watercolours are almost unknown; until now, she has kept these works from public view. These delicate, sometimes spontaneous and always evocative images, created mostly without any intention of being shown to the public, are thematically close to the embroideries. Similar motifs recur in the works on paper, but with a more intimate expression. Here, we follow the development of her artistic visual language and the emergence of different aesthetic ideas.

The exhibition at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet focuses on Britta Marakatt-Labba’s works on paper, shown here for the first time. This also opens up several perspectives on the artist’s creative practice. The exhibition includes around 140 works, mainly watercolours, drawings and sketches, complemented by a selection of embroideries and prints.

About the artist
Britta Marakatt-Labba was born in 1951 in Idivuoma, Sápmi. She grew up in a reindeer-herding family, with Northern Sámi as her mother tongue. After studying at Sunderby folkhögskola outside Luleå and the School of Design and Crafts (HDK) in Gothenburg, she returned to her home region in the late 1970s. In 1978, she was one of the founders of the Masi Group and helped establish a Sámi artists’ organisation. During the 1980s, Britta Marakatt-Labba took part in the Alta protests, which she later depicted in the well-known work “Kråkorna” (1981).

Britta Marakatt-Labba’s art has been included in public and regional collections in the Nordic countries since the 1980s. Her international breakthrough came in 2017, when her 24-metre-long embroidery “Historjá” (2003–2007) was shown at documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany. Since then, her art has attracted considerable international interest and has been exhibited around the world. Today, she lives and works in Övre Soppero.

OPENING HOURS, NORDISKA AKVARELLMUSEET: Tuesday–Sunday 11:00–16:00 (closed Mondays). Opening hours may vary in connection with programme events. Find all current information on the website.

Image: Britta Marakatt-Labba, Förslag till litografi, commission from Konstfrämjandet (detail), 1990–1992 © Britta Marakatt-Labba / Bildupphovsrätt 2026