TROMSØ.- In the coming years, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum will continue to highlight art in the circumpolar North and platform artists that address the most pressing contemporary issues through an exhibition programme that stretches across the local, regional and international. We invite audiences to experience exhibitions that feature artists from the north of Norway while continuing to position Northern Norway/Sápmi as an arena for the display of important international artists.

Synnøve Persen: Himmelen gynger, havet hvisker
February 5th, 2026–May 3, 2026

Launching the exhibition programme in 2026 is an exhibition dedicated to the work of Sámi-Norwegian artist and poet, Synnøve Persen. “Synnøve Persen: Havet gynger, himmelen hvisker», is drawn from several private and institutional collections across Sápmi and commemorates her career as a painter, poet and activist and the winner of the 2025 John Savio Prize. The John Savio Prize is awarded biannually in recognition of significant contributions to Sámi arts and culture.

Joar Nango: Girjegumpi
March 2026–spring 2031

Beginning in March 2026, the museum in Tromsø will host Girjegumpi, the nomadic Sámi Architecture Library, initiated by artist and architect, Joar Nango in collaboration with duodjar, researchers, authors, boatbuilders and other craftspeople. After many years touring the world, in places like Karasjok, Nuuk, São Paolo, among many others, and representing the Nordic Countries Pavilion at the 18th International Venice Architecture Exhibition in 2023, it comes to Tromsø as a reconceived long-term installation, lounge, programme space and free-for-all on the ground floor of the museum.

melanie bonajo: When the body says yes…
May 7, 2026–October 25, 2026

In May of 2026, the museum’s Bodø department will open an exhibition featuring the works of Dutch artist, filmmaker, sexological bodyworker, somatic sex coach and educator, melanie bonajo. The exhibition focuses on the video installation, When the body says yes…, made in collaboration with French scenographer Théo Demans, which was first shown at the Dutch Pavilion during the 2022 Venice Biennale. The video work addresses questions of touch and consent, bodily autonomy, and embodiment and intimacy.

Britta Marakatt-Labba: Historjá
May 7, 2026 – September 26, 2027

The seminal tapestry work Historjá, a 24-meter-long embroidery depicting scenes from Sámi religion, mythology, cosmology, everyday life and colonization by Britta Marakatt-Labba will be on display in Bodø after its inclusion in the exhibitions at Norway’s National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) in Oslo and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The work returns to Sápmi/Northern Norway after an extensive tour and will be on display in Bodø through the autumn before it returns to Tromsø.

Kvenbiennalen: Työ/Arbeid
May 9, 2026–September 20, 2026

Kvenbiennalen, which has toured throughout Norway in 2025 will continue in the spring of 2026 at Nordover Art Centre in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The exhibition is curated by Maija Liisa Björklund and Liv Bangsund of the Kvensk kunstnerforbund. Kvensk Kunstnerforbund works to revitalize the Kven cultural field and raise awareness and visibility of the Kven, a national minority group recognized in 1996, and their contributions to the field of visual art in Norway.

Mother Dough: The Slow Alchemy of Witnessing
June 4, 2026–October 25, 2026

During the spring of 2026, the museum will open “Mother Dough: The Slow Alchemy of Witnessing”, which takes as its starting point the 25th anniversary of the friendship city agreement between Gaza and Tromsø. After more than two years of destruction and genocide, Gaza lies in ruins and many institutions are gone. Now the city must be rebuilt. How can art and culture contribute to the reconstruction and how can the friendship city agreement be a resource in the process? What are friends for? What is the responsibility of cultural institutions? Arts and cultural institutions across Tromsø will join in hosting events and activities that focus on these questions throughout the year. The joint project features a logo designed by Shareef Sarhan showing the reindeer of Tromsø with the phoenix of Gaza intertwined. The exhibition is curated by the Palestinian artist, Carmel Alabbasi.

Maritea Dæhlin: A-FI-SA. But it might not be tomorrow
September 3, 2026–January 31, 2027

Maritea Dæhlin’s solo exhibition A-FI-SA. But it might not be tomorrow which was commissioned by Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, tours to Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum’s branch in Bodø and to Oslo Kunstforening in the autumn of 2026. With transgenerational memory at its heart, the exhibition explores ritual, place and identity, and asks whether it is possible to find healing and playful connections to the past and future through the interconnectedness of bodies, rituals and landscapes.

Tanya Busse solo exhibition
November 19, 2026–April 11, 2027

The exhibition programme continues its dual local and international focus in the autumn of 2026 with an exhibition dedicated to the work of Tromsø-based, Canadian artist, Tanya Busse. Working primarily with print and installation, Busse’s practice explores questions of visibility in relation to deep-time, invisible architecture and to larger systems of power. A publication will accompany the exhibition.

Inghild Karlsen
Autumn 2027–spring 2028

The museum will close 2027 with an ambitious exhibition dedicated to the Tromsø-born, Norwegian artist Inghild Karlsen. Karlsen has worked since the 1970s across installation, drawings and prints, video and performance, sculpture and land art, with inspiration from cultural histories, landscape and ways of life in the North. This first career survey of Karlsen’s work will open simultaneously across all three venues of Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum. A performance programme and publication will accompany the exhibition.