Selected artists for the portfolio residency program PortRe 2025

AUREA TANTTU and FRANS NYBACKA are the two artists selected for PortRe 2025 - 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 Aurea Tanttu and Frans Nybacka. Their residency periods will take place during 2025-2026. 

Aurea Tanttu holds an MFA from Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts in Stockholm and a BFA from Wimbledon College of Arts in London. She has exhibited in Helsinki, Stockholm, London, and Barcelona. Her work is included in the Ersta Diakoni Public Collection in Stockholm and the AMOCA permanent collection in Wales. Working with traces of painterly tropes and heavy colours on both textured and smooth surfaces, Aurea Tanttu uses painting as a tool to unearth familiar impressions of the artist’s surroundings, often through a saturated veil of a flickering memory. The painter’s cathartic integration of idiosyncratic images in a body of work acts as a contemplation on homesickness and spiritual urgency that are rooted in Tanttu’s early girlhood experiences of growing up between continents.

Frans Nybacka is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Helsinki. He has studied at the Aalto University Department of Art and his artistic practice revolves around worldbuilding across various mediums, with painting being the most prominent. Nybacka’s exhibitions form cohesive, serialized ensembles that offer glimpses into alternative worlds – whether it's an inner fantasy realm shaped by video games, histories, memories, or a slightly distorted version of our own reality. The works often carry a mystical and sacred connection to nature, evoking an emotional presence in all things. Nybacka's art embraces a childlike imagination and innocence, where places and objects are personified and cast in a sympathetic light. His works have been shown in Finland and Japan, and will soon be exhibited in the US and Latvia. His pieces are held in both private and public collections, including the Finnish National Gallery.

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. Since its establishment, the foundation has supported more than 600 artists in the fields of visual and performing arts with an amount that totals above three million euros. 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.