(more about this specific project on the artist website)
STATEMENT//
I am a multi-disciplinary artist from Norway and Sweden. The method and material in my art practice come together in a dwelling of the extinction of species, of fading myths and cultural/spiritual protection. The artworks are often delicate in feel, consisting of solely natural material like local wool, nuts and plants that play important roles in my Nordic heritage. They invite us to ponder the connection between ourselves and our surroundings — both now, and also historically. The hazelnut was a token of strength. Wool was a way of surviving. The symbolism of the natural fibres, twigs and metal become a way of inheriting my ancestors’ priorities and concerns, while the processes become a way of embodying their habits. This is why I choose old Nordic folk traditions such as weaving, felting, knitting, painting and copper embossing — and storytelling, as the soil my inspirations sprout out of.
It is all informed by the experience of something that is felt but not seen, both in the vertical forests of my homeland and in the late night readings that flirt with my ideas. It is an act of compassion and reciprocal love in a time where the binary between nature and humanity is the general paradigm. It is a need of bringing to attention the Oneness — the interbeing — of living as a human in an ecological and cyclical existence. Behind the material and the process, there is a continuous chant of unanswered questions, about the environmental crisis, death and our about-to-be-forgotten traditions — and wether oblivion and crisis go hand in hand.
BIO//
Alvi was born in Norway in 2001 and has spent most of her life moving between countries. In 2020-2021 she studied under the Norwegian painter Bjørn Algrim, and received the grant "Kristian Voldens Fond for unge kunstnere". In 2024 she graduated from Rome University of Fine Arts (Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting) cum laude. Since, she has worked as a wedding painter in Arizona, USA and as an assistant to several artists. She has had separate and collective exhibitions in galleries and museums in Italy, Norway, Sweden and Scotland, such as Maxxi - National Museum of the 21st Century (Rome) and Kunstbanken (Hamar). In 2025 she received several stipends for her art practice, thereof Sparebanksstiftelsens Scholarship for Studies Abroad, Sparebanken Talent stipend and Trafo project stipend.
She is a part of the Patina collective, and co-founded SPÆL wool collective with her sisters, an initiative that holds workshop in nordic handcraft and designs contemporary fashion using these old techniques.
What started as a nomad-like lifestyle has now grown into a practice of pilgrimage — that has led her to the Edinburgh College of Art, where she is graduating with a Masters in Contemporary Art Practice summer 2026.
