Nils Agdler is a Swedish visual artist, filmmaker and photographer based in Gothenburg. He received a MFA from Konstfack in Stockholm, followed by studies in fine arts at the Valand Academy in Gothenburg. In his artistic practice, Agdler is interested in contemporary social phenomena, representation and history, environmental issues, posthumanism and colonialism, primarily working in the fields of photography and film.
He has been collaborating with the artist and filmmaker Timo Menke in several film projects such as Fugitives from the Fields (2005), Gifted Men (2015) and Brothers to Sisters (2018). Recently also in collaborations with the Sami artist Tomas Colbengtson and the Norwegian artist and publisher Fröydi Laszlo.
For the past 15 years, he has worked on issues related to men and masculinities, and produced several exhibitions related to this theme. Since 2010 he has also been working with the ongoing photographic series Men with large backpacks. In the perfomance based series Male Nature Studies, he has made the short films REBIRTH (2018) and RETARDATION (2021). Most recently, he produced the short film The Stone Putter (2024), about a woman relating to a desert-like environment, and the film installation GLIDE (2024/25), about a male creature gliding on snow at the treeline, close to a Swedish ski resort.
His work has been shown at museums and galleries such as the 5th Moscow Biennale in Russia, the Ostrale Biennale O21 and O23 in Germany, the Pori Art Museum in Finland and the Kalmar Art museum and the Gothenburg Art museum in Sweden. Recently also at festivals such as the 37th Minimalen Short Film Festival in Trondheim, New York Super Shorts Film Festival, Bruges International Film Festival, Boston Film Festival, Toronto Film Week, Martinique International Film Festival, Japan International Film Festival, New York Tri-State Film Festival, Shockfest Film Festival, Obskuur Ghent Film Festival, Defy Film Festival, Sidney World Film Festival, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, the 35th Kasseler Dokfest and Exground filmfest in Wiesbaden.