Danelle Bergstrom is a Swedish Australian artist living between her home and studio in the Åland Islands and the historic former gold mining town of Hill End in Australia. She creates multi-faceted portraits and wildly evocative landscapes that pictorialise the artist’s lived experiences, personifying the human form and the land as a vessel for emotion.
Bergstrom has been the recipient of major residencies in Åland, Finland (2016), Konstepidemin, Gothenburg, Sweden (2016, 2011), Northern Territory Supreme Court, Darwin, Australia (2008) and Cill Rialaig in Ireland (2007). She has been a finalist in numerous prestigious Australian art prizes including the Archibald Prize, Portia Geach Memorial Award, Paddington Art Prize and Salon des Refusés and has painted over twenty public commissions. Her work is held in many important global collections, both public and private, including the National Portrait Gallery and National Library in Australia.
Current Work & Projects
In 2023, Danelle’s extensive career was highlighted in a career survey exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in Australia. Selected landscape works from the last twenty years were presented alongside many of her notable portraits and film work.
You can view the exhibition online here.
Currently working towards an exhibition entitled Spirit of Emelia, Danelle has immersed herself in her studio in the Scandinavian Åland Islands and is working with the Emelia Foundation to celebrate the building of the historical galeas Emelia at the Mariehamn Sjökvarteret.
This multi-disciplinary exhibition to be held at Åland Konstmuseum, will feature around 100 portraits and paintings of the remarkable shipbuilding process and the men and women involved in her construction, together with an accompanying audio soundscape.
A film documentary and a book are also being scheduled to coincide with the Emelia launch date in 2026.
You can read more about this exciting new project here.
