Isabella Solar Villaseca is this year’s recipient of Sven and Ellida Hjort’s Exhibition Grant!

Skånes konstförening is happy to announce that Malmö-based artist Isabella Solar Villaseca is this year’s recipient of the Sven and Ellida Hjort’s Exhibition Grant! Beyond a stipend of SEK 25 000, the award includes an exhibition at Skånes konstförening opening in February 2026.


The Jury’s Statement

In her artistic practice, Isabella Solar Villaseca explores the struggle for freedom and collectivity, with rhythm as a recurring guide. Villaseca navigates the landscapes of memory that stretch between Sweden and Chile, both as an observer and with an intimate familiarity. Her video installations, which often have the archive as a starting point, allow moving images to interact with monumental, spatial structures—as representatives of a bygone era. She works comparatively with architectural environments and folkloric traditions, which are imbued with the power to both heal and unite, but also to corrupt when used as instruments of power in the name of populism. Her practice possesses a strong and precise ability to highlight complexity that evokes memories, sheds light on socio-economic challenges, and invites conversation. We are very much looking forward to showcasing her work at Skånes konstförening.


About the Artist

Isabella Solar Villaseca works with video, text, and sculptural installation. Through archival material, moving images, and storytelling, she weaves together the politics of memory, history, and communities that have shaped our present. With rhythmic editing, theatrical elements, and architectural components, she creates works that operate in the space between the concrete and the poetic – where narrative, collective experiences, and the spaces we inhabit and move through take center stage.

Isabella Solar Villaseca was educated at the Art Academy in Bergen and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She has exhibited at, among others, Overgaden – Institute of Contemporary Art (DK), Skēnē/Vermilion Sand (SE/DK), the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (LV), and has screened art films at international film festivals such as the 35th European Media Art Festival (DE) and CPH:DOX (DK).


About the stipend

The Sven and Ellida Hjorts Exhibition Grant is awarded annually to an emerging artist based in Skåne. Hanni Kamaly was the first recipient in 2017, followed by LealVeileby, Ikram Abdulkadir, Cia Khanti, Sana Jarrar, Matilda Tjäder, Stacey de Voe and Simon Ferner. The awarded artist is chosen by a jury appointed by the board of Skånes konstförening. The 2025 jury consisted of Ellen Bjerborn, Khamlane Halsackda, Vladimir Okhnich and Anna Zingmark.