In Djurberg’s short stop-action animation dramas—described by the artist as “fairy tales gone mad”—forces of good and evil, dark and light, beauty and horror intertwine. Her characters often exist in moral tension with each other and within themselves. They often shed big blue (clay) tears. Her narratives provide no reassuring fairy-tale conclusions.

Djurberg constructs almost everything in her puppet plays herself, from the creation of the plasticine figures, their costumes and settings to the technical realization to the direction of her dramas. Traces of her production process remain in the final cut: puppet strings are sometimes visible, spelling mistakes go uncorrected. In "Camels Drink Water", her characters wander out of the desert and through Djurberg’s studio on their way to an oasis.

Born in 1978 in Lysekil, Sweden, Djurberg studied at the Hovedskous Art School in Gothenburg, Sweden, and received her master’s degree from Malmö Art Academy. She has had solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2008); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2008); Kunsthalle Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland (2007); and Fargfabriken, Stockholm (2006). Her work has been included in major international group exhibitions, including Art in a Dark Age (Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2008); After Nature (New Museum, New York, 2008); Performa 07, New York (2007); Fractured Figure (Deste Foundation, Athens, 2007); and Of Mice and Men: The 4th Berlin Biennial (2006). In 2008 she received the Carnegie Art Award, Scholarship for a Young Artist.

This fall Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg will show at Stavanger Art Museum, Norway, "The Dark Side of the Moon", 17 November 2017 - 18 March 2018.