Oslo Kunstforening is pleased to announce that the Sparebankstiftelsen DNB’s 2025 grant is awarded to all the nominees who are part of the annual grant exhibition – Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard & Zayne Armstrong, PURPOSE CORE, and Rafiki.

The jury has had a thorough process and concluded with the following statement:

The jury recognizes that the three projects presented in the exhibitions at Oslo Kunstforening and Deichman Bjørvika are of high artistic standards and innovative artistic ways of thinking. They embody different approaches to artistic creation and to being an artist today. Each of the projects explores social topics through artistic means, while challenging the exhibition format both physically and symbolically.

In an installation comprising painting, video, and a publication, Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard and Zayne Armstrong address the role of creative labour – such as artistic work – in post-fordist societies, experimenting with modes of refusal and unfinishedness, but also fandom. The duo PURPOSE CORE (Ihra Lill Scharning and Katarina Skjønsberg) works together based on concrete conceptual agreements that are both serious and humorous. Their works for the two venues suggest new ways to address physical access. Rafiki's works portray testimony and experience of the horrific war in Eastern Congo and its history in colonialist power relations. Based on personal connection, Rafiki finds ways to give images urgency and dignity.

The jury was deeply impressed by the three presentations, which offered profound investigations of contemporary reality. The exhibition, in its totality, highlights the complex ways in which artistic practice exists today, within social circumstances and devastating political conditions. In this context, the jury decided to divide the prize equally among the three projects and not to prioritise one approach over others. This decision highlights their coexisting differences and acknowledges the layers of collaboration, knowledge production, and experimentation that lie at the core of each
artistic practice.

Jury: Ana María Bresciani (chair), curator at MUNCH; Pedro Gómez-Egaña, visual artist and professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts; Sandra Mujinga, visual artist and musician; Axel Wieder, director of the Berlin Biennale; and Elisabeth Byre, artistic director at Oslo Kunstforening.

Oslo Kunstforening informed the artists of the jury’s decision. Rafiki and Ihra Lill Scharning disagree with the jury's decision and have refused to accept the prize.

Sparebankstiftelsen DNB Grant Exhibition 2025 will remain on view until 11 January 2026. New this year is a collaboration with Oslo’s main library, Deichman Bjørvika, which also presents works by the artists. This collaboration makes the art projects accessible to an even broader audience, with various activities taking place across both venues. The annual grant exhibition is considered one of the most important art prizes in Norway and has been organized by Oslo Kunstforening since 2008 with support from Sparebankstiftelsen DNB. So far, 83 artists have participated in the exhibition, and 26 have received the grant. This year the grant amounts to 300.000 NOK.

Previous grant recipients include Eline Benjaminsen (2024), Linda Lamignan (2023), Kim Hankyul (2022), Anne Haugsgjerd (2021), Berivan Erdogan, Hanni Kamaly and Kjetil Skøien (2020), Germain Ngoma (2019), Eirik Sæther (2018), Emilija Škarnulytė (2017), Tor Børresen (2016), Andrea Bakketun and Christian Tony Norum (2015), Ingrid Lønningdal (2014), Sandra Mujinga (2013), Marie Buskov (2012), Kaia Hugin (2011), Ann Cathrin November Høibo (2010), Ignas Krunglevičius (2009), and Ellisif Hals and Susanne Skeide (2008).