Selected artists for the portfolio residency program PortRe 2024

Haliz Yosef and Nayab Noor Ikram are the two artists selected for PortRe 2024 - A portfolio residency program for emerging visual artists

PortRe is the Finnish Cultural Institute in Denmark’s 1-week long residency program in Copenhagen with focus on the artist’s portfolio. It is operated in collaboration with The Stina Krook Foundation (FIN) and was launched in 2019. The purpose of PortRe is to create an opportunity for emerging Finnish, or Finland-based, visual artists to come to Copenhagen and present their portfolios to a number of established actors on the Danish cultural field. For example, gallerists, art critics, curators or other art professionals and commence on a constructive conversation around the artist’s portfolio. The portfolio is an important and necessary tool for visual artists, yet artists rarely have the possibility to discuss them with the people evaluating them. The aim with the program is to provide this possibility for emerging artists, in an early stage of their career, as a unique opportunity for development and rewarding dialogue between artists and art professionals.  

PortRe is a residency program by invitation only and welcomes 2 artists a year for a duration of 1 week each. The artists are selected by The Stina Krook Foundation's board from candidates suggested by the foundation’s art experts: Kai Kartio and Helen Korpak. 

This year’s selected artists are Haliz Yosef and Nayab Noor Ikram. Their residency periods will take place during 2024-2025. 

Haliz Yosef holds a Master of Fine Arts from The Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki. In their work Yosef explores the interplay between sound art and physical objects which derive from intuitive practice and storytelling. Yosef works with themes such as ontology, speculative imagination of their heritage in Kurdish folklore and imaginary Mesopotamian relics. They usually play with the thought of hunting hidden objects that wants to be found. Through these stories they become objects. Yosef's works mediate through sound art, moving image, and sculptural installations. In 2023, Haliz Yosef was selected as one of the promising young artists in Finland. Their works have been exhibited in Finland and abroad, including Sweden, the UK, and South Korea. 

Nayab Noor Ikram holds a Bachelor of Culture and Arts from Novia University of Applied Sciences in Pietarsaari, majoring in photoghrapy. She is a Turku-based visual artist and photographer of the Pakistani diaspora from The Åland Island. In her artistic practice, Ikram works with moving image, photography, performances, and installations exploring concepts dealing with the feeling of in-betweenship, cultural identity, and memory through rituals and symbolism. Ikram has exhibited in Finland and internationally. Her work can be found in public and private collections of the City of Helsinki managed by the Helsinki Art Museum and The Åland Art Museum. In 2019 she was the recipient of a Culture Award from the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland and the Anna-Lena Dreijer Art Fund on The Åland Islands in 2022.

The Stina Krook Foundation

The purpose of the Stina Krook Foundation is to support and promote visual arts and performing arts with a special consideration of the Swedish-speaking population in Finland. Stina Nicolaisen, née Krook, established the foundation in December 1976. The first awards were presented on Stinas' birthday on 15 March 1978. As of 2019, the foundation has distributed more than 500 awards to a total amount of 2 million euro. The surprise and joy has been great among the receivers, as the foundation does not accept applications. Instead, the board make its decisions based on suggestions by experts in the field of visual arts and performing arts.