Konstfack University Of Arts Crafts and Design
Specialisms: Illustration / Drawing / Storytelling
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
First Name: Maija
Last Name: Nürnberger
Specialisms: Illustration / Drawing / Storytelling
Sectors:
My Location: Stockholm, Sweden
University / College: Konstfack University Of Arts Crafts and Design
Course / Program Title: Visual Communication MA
Maija Nürnberger is a British/Latvian/German artist based in Stockholm. She graduated with an MA in visual communication from Konstfack University in 2023. Through her work she explores the interweaving notions of identity and belonging, nationhood, family and geopolitics with a particular focus on 'Post-Soviet' European spaces.
Maija is my name but I share that name with my aunt, who my parents found in 1994. Two years before I was born and 50 years since my grandad left both his daughter and his homeland in the midst of the Second World War. Mājas is the Latvian word for home. When spoken aloud to an untrained ear, the word sounds incredibly similar to my own name and I am never sure if someone is talking about home or me. Maija is a graphic novel about my family, the tumultuous and often forgotten history of the Baltic region and, ultimately, how I have sought to create a relationship to a place from which I feel so disconnected. I use drawing as a means to bring myself closer to a lost family, as an act to record the past and also as a tool to create a possible future. Using my own hand, I am circling the past to a point that connects with my present.