OCA-Nominated Artists Announced for 2026 Artica Svalbard Residencies
We are pleased to announce the artists selected for the 2026 Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) nominated residencies at Artica Svalbard.
OCA-Nominated Artists Announced for 2026 Artica Svalbard Residencies
10 September 2025
Following an open call that received over 1,200 expressions of interest, two collaborative duos have been selected to spend time in Longyearbyen in 2026 to develop projects grounded in artistic research, experimentation, and engagement with Svalbard’s social, ecological, and political context. We want to sincerely thank everyone who applied — the number and quality of proposals were extraordinary, and we’re grateful for the time, thought, and creativity that applicants brought to the process.
The Selected Artists for 2026
Annike Flo and Lexie Owen have worked together since 2022 while maintaining independent practices. Their collaborative project focuses on death, decomposition, and mourning — examining how climate change and funerary law intersect with the material and symbolic handling of the dead. During their residency, they will explore Svalbard’s unique burial landscape, working with museum collections and researchers, and engaging the community in questions around remembrance, transformation, and ecological grief.
Jun Zhang and Yindi Chen. During their residency, they will research the 17th-century “blubber town” Smeerenburg, tracing links between whaling histories and colonial cartography. Combining archival and on-site research with print-workshop experimentation, they will surface local oceanic knowledge historically marginalised by colonial activity and speculate on symbiotic scenes of more-than-human worlds in the Arctic.
These residencies are part of the ongoing partnership between OCA and Artica Svalbard, which supports artists working with critical and context-aware approaches to the Arctic.
“We are grateful for the incredible range of proposals received through the open call and humbled by the depth of engagement with the Arctic across practices and disciplines. The selected artists bring with them powerful approaches to storytelling, research, and material exploration — each offering unique perspectives on the Arctic as a place where environmental, political, and cultural changes converge,”
says Ruben Steinum, Director of OCA.
“Artica’s residency programme is rooted in dialogue and critical exchange, and we’re excited to welcome these two duos to Svalbard. Their practices resonate with the Arctic’s layered histories, material conditions, and living communities — offering meaningful contributions to wider conversations around place, care, and change,”
says Charlotte Hetherington, Director of Artica Svalbard.
The selection was made by a committee consisting of Ruben Steinum (Director, OCA), Itzel Esquivel (Project Coordinator, OCA), and Charlotte Hetherington (Director, Artica Svalbard).
Artists who were not selected through the OCA open call are warmly encouraged to apply for Artica Svalbard’s Independently Funded Residency programme. The next open call in partnership with OCA will launch in early 2026.
