Sonja Thomsen

Sonja Ruth Thomsen (born 1978) is an American multidisciplinary visual artist and educator. Working across photography, video art, and sculpture, Thomsen creates art installations that investigate light, perception, and space through feminist and scientific frameworks. She is an professor adjunct in the department of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Education Thomsen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Arts from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 2000; and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004.

Public art projects

Here Mothers Are Created in 2012 by Thomsen in her first collaboration with Adam Carr, the public art project centered on the Amani neighborhood. It took the form of a temporary installation combining photography, audio, and text drawn from living room interviews with women and families connected to the Dominican Center for Women. Focusing on motherhood and inter-generational ties, the project collected reflections on mothers, grandmothers, and children.

Listening to Mitchell In 2014, Thomsen, in collaboration with Adam Carr created a multimedia public art installation spanning seven blocks of Historic Mitchell Street on Milwaukee’s south side. Developed during the summer, the project engaged local residents and incorporated audio, photographic, and narrative elements drawn from the surrounding community. It was subsequently archived as a digital collection by the Milwaukee Public Library.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 2012: Echo, two-person exhibition with Charlotta María Hauksdóttir, Reykjavik City Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland 2015: Glowing Wavelengths In Between, DePaul Art Museum at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois 2016: In Orbit, John Michael Kohler Art Center Glass Gallery, Sheboygan, Wisconsin 2021: Marginal Notes, The Suburban, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2022: By her own movement, Gallery 062, Chicago, Illinois 2022: By her own movement, Fonderia 20.9, Verona, Italy 2022–2023: Orbiting Lucia, as part of the exhibition Refracting Histories, Museum of Contemporary Photograph, Chicago, Illinois 2025: and then down became up, Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2026: Proofs, Tangents, Echoes, Kiehle Gallery, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN

Group exhibitions 2011: Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2012: Shift, Parkland College, Champaign, Illinois 2014: Konstellationen, Gallery 5.6, Munich, Germany 2015: Photography Sees the Surface, Higher Pictures, New York 2015: Femme Papel, RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco, California 2017: New Bauhaus Chicago: Experiment Photography and Film, Bauhaus Archive 2017: New Bauhaus Chicago: Experiment Photography, Bauhaus Archive, Berlin, Germany 2018: Mary Nohl and the Walrus Club, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin 2020: pool, 2020” (with Thom Bridge), Photography & _____, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2022: Refracting Histories, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois 2023: Pause/Connect, Warehouse Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Collections Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois DePaul University Art Museum, Chicago, Illinois

Publications 2020: You Will Find it Where it is, a reader, Poor Farm Press, Wisconsin. Held in the MoMA Library and Yale's Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library

2020: Keeper of the Hearth: Picturing Roland Barthes, Odette England, Schlit Publishing, Amsterdam 2017: New Bauhaus Chicago: Experiment Photography, Hirmer Publishers, 2009: Lacuna

Awards and fellowships 2025–2026: Josef Breitenbach Research Fellowship, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona 2025: BMC Active Archive Artist Residency 2023: Ruth Arts Mary L. Nohl Alumni Award 2024: Visual Studies Workshop Project Space Residency, Rochester, New York 2018: Cow House Studios Residency, Wexford County, Ireland 2015: Artist in Residence Latitude, Chicago, Illinois 2011: Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship for Established Artists, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Greater Milwaukee Foundation 2008: Hermitage Artist Fellow, Hermitage Artist Retreat 2005: Mary L. Nohl Suitcase Export Fund