ArtistSwedish
Lars Levi Sunna
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Lars Levi Sunna was born in 1944 in Årosjokk, a small settlement near Kiruna in northernmost Sweden. His parents were Laestadian Christians who had previously sustained themselves through reindeer herding until a catastrophic winter in the 1930s devastated the family herd and forced a shift to small-scale cattle farming and handicraft. Growing up, Sunna absorbed craft knowledge as an organic part of daily life, with no clear boundary between domestic routine and the making of objects.
That early immersion in duodji, the traditional Sami practice of functional and decorative craft, became the foundational language of his artistic career. Sunna works across carved horn, birch wood, bone, and leather, producing knives, kåsas, salt bottles, snöripas, and other objects rooted in Sami material culture. Each piece is signed and grounded in the formal traditions of his people while also functioning as a personal and political statement.
His art is explicitly engaged with the political situation of the Sami as an indigenous people within the Swedish state. For four decades, Sunna and his family have been in conflict with their Sami village community and regional authorities over lost herding rights, a struggle that runs as a direct current through his work. He has also created paintings on fibreboard and plywood, often in a collage register that juxtaposes motifs of different scale and origin, using stencils and spray techniques associated with graffiti.
Among his most significant public works is 'Noaiddilatnja/Nåjdens sal' (The Noaidi's Hall), a permanent installation at Folkets hus in central Kiruna, which draws on pre-Christian Sami spiritual traditions while maintaining his identity as a practicing Laestadian. He has also produced works for churches and public spaces in Jukkasjärvi and across the northern Swedish interior.
At auction, Sunna's work appears predominantly through Norrlands Auktionsverk, reflecting the regional significance of his output. His duodji objects, including carved horn knives, ripas, and kåsas, achieve consistent results in Swedish auction rooms. Sunna's work has been studied in academic contexts as an example of how Sami artists negotiate the intersection of craft tradition, indigenous political consciousness, and contemporary art practice.