Waste No More
The works of Danish artist Thomas Dambo celebrate the intersection of art, nature, storytelling, and recycling. Born in 1979 in Odense, Denmark, Dambo grew up in a collective household where resourcefulness and creativity thrived. After an early engagement with hip-hop, beatboxing, graffiti, and street art, Thomas pursued a Master’s degree in Interaction Design at the Kolding School of Design from 2006 to 2012, where he began experimenting with building large-scale installations using reclaimed materials.
A lifelong advocate for upcycling and public engagement, Thomas Dambo’s projects continually challenge the boundaries between art, adventure, and activism. His work has transformed landscapes and communities, drawing global audiences into a playful, urgent conversation about waste, wonder, and our relationship with the planet.
Since 2014, Thomas has become internationally known for his monumental wooden trolls—sculptures made entirely from recycled wood, often hidden in forests or public spaces, and accompanied by narratives that blend folklore, environmentalism, and community participation. His works span multiple continents, with solo exhibitions and public commissions across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
In 2016, Thomas Dambo created The Six Forgotten Giants, a series of giant trolls placed in natural areas around Copenhagen’s suburbs. The project became a viral success, viewed by hundreds of millions online, and brought international recognition to his practice. In 2018, he launched Troll Hunt at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois, USA. The six large-scale sculptures hidden in the landscape broke attendance records with over 1.24 million visitors in its first year.
Major projects include Future Forest (2018), a 600 m² forest of plastic waste constructed with over a thousand volunteers in Mexico City; The 7 Trolls and the Magical Tower (2019), a sculptural installation for the Tomorrowland festival in Belgium; and Den Kæmpestore Troldefolkefest (2020), a nationwide Danish troll festival created during the COVID-19 pandemic after several international projects, including commissions for the Tokyo Olympics, Burning Man, and Australia, were cancelled. The latter project transformed Denmark into a global destination for Dambo’s work.
In 2021, Thomas Dambo acquired a 22-hectare farm outside of Copenhagen, transforming it into a living and working hub with private residences, studios, offices, and a large-scale workshop for his team and collaborators.
In 2022 Thomas realised the award winning Giants of Mandurah, a major exhibition showcasing his trolls across Western Australia’s coastal landscape. In 2023, Dambo completed Way of the Bird King, a monumental art and storytelling project across six U.S. states, featuring ten sculptures and a corresponding fairytale book.
That same year, he unveiled his 100th troll, Månemor , located in a secret place only discoverable through a global digital treasure hunt via his interactive platform Trollmap. The campaign united people across continents in an adventurous, participatory celebration of art and myth-making.
Thomas Dambo’s early practice laid the foundations for his unique artistic vision. In 2013, he created Remake Utopia —a pop-up village in central Copenhagen built entirely from recycled materials, followed by Remake Christmas, the world’s first waste-based Christmas market. His Happy Wall —a large-scale public pixel board for interactive messages—first installed in Copenhagen in 2013, later toured to Las Vegas, the Rio Olympics, and Beijing Design Week.
Earlier still, in 2010, his Happy City Birds project placed over 250 colorful birdhouses across Denmark to promote biodiversity. This evolved from his formative years working with reclaimed materials for TV and street art, including whimsical public pieces like The Milk Box Cow for Danish Broadcasting.
Before embracing sculpture full-time, Thomas Dambo played a pivotal role in Denmark’s hip-hop underground as part of the group Fler Farver, releasing nine albums and developing a reputation for theatrical live shows, DIY stage sets, and guerrilla marketing.
Thomas Dambo lives and works near Copenhagen, Denmark
