Tony Karlsson Savci (born 1988 in Södertälje) is a transdisciplinary artist based in Stockholm, primarily working with performance, installation, and text, and in collective processes and collaborations. They hold an MFA in Fine Arts from Konstfack, spent an exchange semester at the International Academy of Art Palestine in Ramallah, and participated in the post-master course Collective Practices Research Program at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Karlsson Savci has collaborated with artists such as Every Ocean Hughes, Makda Embaie, and Mar Fjell, as well as pop star Zhala. They have also been a member of the student-initiated artist collective Brown Island, and part of the collective publishing project Wake Up!.

Over the past five years, Karlsson Savci has developed the method of ‘queerleading’ – the name flirting with cheerleading and queer leadership is an applied methodology for collective responsibility in facilitating situations within art and pedagogy. The method has embodied through performances, workshops, installations, and other participatory activities in exhibitions at venues such as Konsthall C, Mint ABF, and Residence Botkyrka. Karlsson Savci also makes use of ‘queerleading’ in their pedagogical work such as teaching at Gerlesborgsskolan in Stockholm and holding lectures and workshops at Konstfack, Stockholm University, UniArts, and Munka Art School, as well as through KHiO at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo.

Karlsson Savci presented the solo exhibition ‘hooking up’ with Makda Embaie at Baerum Kunsthall (2024). The exhibition included a 45-minute performance about the erotic power of solidarity through readings of Audre Lorde and bell hooks, performed in a spatial installation with poufs, mattresses, and vinyl wall text with excerpts from the performance. In the fall of 2023, they showed the first version of ‘hooking up’ at the Off Biennale in Cairo. 

Karlsson Savci has also participated in the performance work ‘Help the Dead’ by Every Ocean Hughes together with Geo Wyex and Colin Self at KW in Berlin in 2019, Skeppsholmskyrkan in Stockholm in 2022, and Whitney Museum in New York in 2023. In 2022, they assisted Hughes in her solo exhibitions at Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Studio Voltaire in London. In connection to Hughes’ exhibition at Moderna Museet, Karlsson Savci also participated in her performance “A Gay Bar Called Everywhere (with costumes and no practice)” at MDT.

Karlsson Savci is co-organizing the project space Munnen (The Mouth) with Sara Kaaman, Johnny Chang, and Michael Bekele. Munnen is an artist-run gathering place for publishing, food, listening, reading, and collective making based in Bagarmossen.