Edstrandska Foundation scholarship exhibition 2024

The Edstrandska Foundation distributes three of Sweden's largest art scholarships and four scholarships to newly graduated master's students. In collaboration with Malmö Art Academy, the scholarship holders will show their works in a group exhibition opening October 24th. 

This year, Edstrandska Scholarship Foundation has awarded a scholarship of SEK 500,000 each to the artists Pia Ferm, Tarik Kiswanson, and Elisabeth Östin. In addition, four newly graduated master's students at the Malmö Art Academy will receive a scholarship of SEK 100,00 each. The recipients are Anne Sofie Djernis, Cornelia Hermansson, Amanda Moberg, and Alice Ryne.

Exhibition and award ceremony

The scholarship holders will show their works in the Academy's galleries KHM1 (Friisgatan 15B) and KHM2 (Bergsgatan 29, 3rd floor), between Thursday 24 October and Saturday 23 November. On the opening day, 24 October, the scholarship award ceremony will take place in gallery KHM1, at 18.00.

Opening day

Thursday 24 October, 17.00-19.00

Opening hours

Wednesday - Friday 12.00-18.00
Saturday - Sunday 12.00-16.00

A warm welcome!

About the Scholarship recipients 

Pia Ferm (born 1986 in Lysekil) trained at the Städelschule in Frankfurt 2014-2020. In her numerous exhibitions, mainly in Germany, she works with textiles that are given both a painterly and sculptural expression.    

For me it is a great recognition. I feel that my art is seen and recognised. For me, it is a clear confirmation that my work has developed to such a level that it can communicate in the way I want, writes Pia Ferm about how it feels to receive the Edstrand Scholarship.    

Tarik Kiswanson (born 1986 in Halmstad) studied at Central St Martin's College of Art and Design and ENS de Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he lives. He has exhibited in Sweden at Hallands konstmuseum and Bonniers konsthall and in 2023 was awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize by the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He works in installations, objects and film with the relationship between memory, trauma and space with his Palestinian background as a sounding board.

Grants like Edstrandska's are essential, especially when you are a sculptor, I would say, at a time when much of the art we see around us is becoming more and more commercial and superficial, it is important that institutions help artists who have a practice that does not seek easy paths and where thought is central, describes Tarik Kiswanson.

Elisabeth Östin (born 1989 in Viken) graduated from the Malmö Art Academy in 2019.   She has mainly exhibited in Sweden, and is represented in the collections of the Swedish Arts Council, Uppsala Municipality and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. She works primarily with painting as a language with its own laws. Her paintings often relate to anatomy and organic forms that border on the grotesque.    

The grant provides security and peace of mind. I plan to focus on larger-scale works, which require more time and space, and the grant will be a great help. There are some trips to different artists and institutions that I will be able to carry out with greater ease now! writes Elisabeth Östin in response to how the scholarship will affect her artistic endevours in the future.*

*All quotes translated from Swedish to English, courtesy of the article author Filippa Jonsson, communicator at Malmö Art Academy. 

About the Edstrandska Foundation

The Edstrandska Foundation awards a total of 1,900.000 SEK, making it one of the largest scholarship funds for the visual arts in Sweden. The Foundation has awarded the scholarships since 1951, and since the start of the Royal Institute of Art in 1995. Many of the most prominent artists working in Sweden and the Nordic countries have received the grant. They have described the importance of receiving the grant early in their careers.      

The Edstrandska Foundation was created as an endowment gift to the art collector Thekla Edstrand on her 70th birthday on 27 June 1950. Since 1951, the foundation has awarded scholarships, making it one of the oldest and largest private foundations for the visual arts in Sweden. Since 2011, the Malmö Art Academy is responsible for the presentation of this year's grant recipients.