Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, June 17, 2023: Thomas Dambo, a Danish sculptor (#1830)

Thomas Dambo ( 1979) is a Danish recycling art activist, well know for his mesmerizing wooden troll sculptures.

Thomas originates from Denmark. He has always loved building stuff and began at an early age building treehouses and boxcars from old wood he found around his neighborhood.

After High School Thomas began studying to become a carpenter, although he quickly became bored with the repetitive work. Searching for a different line of creativity, he applied at Kolding School of Designs and was accepted in 2005.

During his early years at the design school, Thomas started to see great potential in all of the stuff that people threw out. He was especially intrigued by all the ply-wood that was thrown away daily by constructing sites etc, and one day when he came across a giant container filled with this, he got the idea for his first major street art project; “Happy City Birds”.

After graduating, Thomas got his own workshop in Copenhagen from where he started his business, while also pursuing his passion as a street artist. He is well known around the world for his large recycle sculptures and installations.

Thomas began this particular endeavor many years ago. The idea for Happy City Birds sprung from Thomas being a former graffiti artist, and was looking for a way to do street art in a positive way that everyone can understand. Not everyone understands graffiti, but even Thomas’ grandmother understood the purpose of birdhouses.

Since 2006 Thomas has made and put up more than 3500 birdhouses in different shapes and colors all over the world. Some he and his crew made themselves, while others were co-created in various workshops, some have been used for making big sculptures and art projects, while others have been spread all over different cities.
Thomas Dumbo Arts & Sculptures

Thomas Dambo has installed 7 giant wooden trolls in Boom, Belgium to celebrate 15th anniversary of Tomorrowland, an electronic dance music festival held in Boom, Belgium.

Like all of Dambo’s sculptures, each troll has been shaped out of reclaimed wood, illustrating the artist’s self-described ability to make “anything you can imagine out of trash.” While the figures’ gesturing hands, giant feet, and expressive faces were crafted in Copenhagen, their colossal bodies were built on-site. Once assembled, most of the trolls came to measure anywhere from 15 to 30 feet tall—though Little Arturs, the lounging figure, boasts an impressive 60-foot height.

At the request of Tomorrowland, he has brought the trolls to life. Using old pallets, recycled wood, broken branches and fallen trees, he builds the most wonderful creations and mythical creatures who have been known to show up all over the world.

Thomas Dambo builds giant wooden trolls around the world and hide them in wilderness and forests. By doing this, He hope to lure people away from concrete cities and computer screens, into the wild and reconnect them with the natural world. He builds all my enormous sculptures of recycled materials to show the potential in this precious material, which is often discarded and becomes a threat to the natural world.

Since he was a child, he always loved to hear different fairytales and folklore stories, and dream himself away into magical worlds filled with dragons and trolls. As a teenager, he started writing his own stories as a rapper, putting out records, touring and creating a universe, where he could tell these stories. In his latest project, he combined all of the above. Recycling, Rapping, Nature, and Sculptures.

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