Frida Orupabo »Big girl I«

Focus, April 13, 2026

Frida Orupabo is a sociologist and artist living and working in Oslo, Norway. Her work consists of digital and physical collages in various forms, which explore questions related to race, family relations, gender, sexuality, violence and identity.

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Orupabo’s incisive work unearths violences in historic photographic and popular archives as well as contemporary digital media. She draws from personal experiences that are deeply intertwined with shared, collective experiences, reimagining these difficult images into otherworldly collages, videos, and sculptures. This process is rooted in a photomontage tradition where she manipulates, cuts, arranges, inverts and loops images. Powerful as they are, these interventions create imaginative and poignant reworkings of motifs that seek to challenge colonial notions still embedded in social, economic and political structures, enabling a sensitive examination of subjects such as race, gender, sexuality, and familial bonds.

Orupabo’s latest solo exhibition, Daily Encounters, her third with the Stockholm gallery, will be opening April 16 on Lützengatan 1.

Frida Orupabo was born 1986 in Sarpsborg, Norway. She lives and works in Oslo.

Orupabo will present two solo exhibitions in 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art – MAC/CCB, Lisbon, and Kunsten, Museum of Modern Art Aalborg. Recent solo shows include Sprengel Museum, Hanover and Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (both 2025); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2024); Fotomuseum Winterthur (2022); Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo (2021); Kunsthall Trondheim (2021); Huis Marseille, Amsterdam (2020); Portikus, Frankfurt am Main and Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (both 2019). Orupabo participated in the MOMENTA Biennale d'art contemporain x VOX, centre de l'image contemporaine in Montréal (2025); the 15th Gwangju Biennale (2024); the Okayama Art Summit (2022); the 34th São Paulo Biennial (2021) as well as the 58th Venice Biennale (2018). In 2025, Orupabo received the SPECTRUM Internationaler Preis für Fotografie for her photographic and collage based practice.

Her work is included in the collections of Mumok, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria; VERBUND Collection, Austria; Instituto Bernardo Paz, Brazil; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Centre national des arts plastiques, France; Kadist Foundation, France/USA; DZ BANK Kunststiftung, Germany; Alexander Tutsek-Foundation, Germany; Museum Ludwig, Germany/Austria; KIASMA, Finland; Turku Art Museum, Finland; Jumex Museum, Mexico; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands; Kistefos Collection, Norway; Nasjonalmuseet, Norway; Astrup Fearnley Museet, Norway; A4 Arts Foundation, South Africa; Scheryn Collection, South Africa; Foundation ARCO, Spain; Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden; Moderna Museet, Sweden; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Museum Rietberg, Switzerland; Tate, UK; Victoria and Albert Museum, UK; Bronx Museum, USA; Dean Collection, USA; Guggenheim Museum, USA; LACMA, USA; Marieluise Hessel Collection, USA; Perez Art Museum, USA; Studio Museum in Harlem, USA.