Pia Arke (1958-2007) was a Greenlandic and Danish artist, writer and photographer.

Arke enrolled at the Department of Theory and Communications at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 1995 she graduated with an MFA with the published thesis "Ethno-Aesthetics", critiquing Western romantic and primitivist stereotyping of "Eskimo" art, pioneering critical issues of cultural identity and authenticity.

Today her work continues to push the boundaries of artistic expression, challenging conventional notions of identity, representation and political perceptions of knowledge and power, with a particular emphasis on elevating the voices and experiences of the female subject within a postcolonial context. Arke's work emanates a profound sense of purpose and her work is only recently being widely recognised.

Arke was born on 1 September 1958 in Kap Tobin in northeastern Greenland - the peculiar colony of Scoresbysund; a settlement of small communities constructed by the 1925 Danish bare-bones political endeavor designed to hold a territorial claim against Norway. Daughter of a Danish telegraphist and Greenlandic seamstress she was brought up in Qaanaaq, close by the American military base of Thule, now known as Pittufik Space Base.

Pia faces the pervasive unrest stemming from cultural collapse - the consequences of the profound alienation and othering perpetuated by colonial power. Rather than submitting to the impossible struggle of reconciling the conflicting identities imposed by colonial hierarchies, Pia rejects categorization. She 'stays behind' and insistently roams and dismantles the wasteland of this personal-political baren in the hopes of finding a 'third place'.

Pia Arke Estate

The legacy of Pia Arke is administered and preserved by Pia’s son Søren Arke with the Pia Arke Estate. All exhibitions, events, publications, and activities relating to Pia Arke are undertaken in close partnership with the Estate. The Estate can be contacted either through this website under ‘contact’ or by e-mail at piaarke@gmail.com