Viola Nimuhamya named winner of Southnord’s UP NEXT 2025 open call

Southnord is pleased to announce Viola Nimuhamya as the winner of this year’s UP NEXT open call. Selected from a remarkable group of applicants across the Nordic region, Nimuhamya’s practice stood out for its quiet strength, conceptual clarity, and a compelling material language rooted in care.

Born in Uganda and currently based in Bergen, Nimuhamya works across installation, fibre art, and sculpture. Her process-driven approach draws on storytelling and memory as tools for both inquiry and reflection. Through the use of upcycled textiles and hand-built forms, she weaves together personal and collective experience—creating intimate works that explore rest, identity, and the act of holding space.

“We were moved by the intimacy of Viola’s work and the strong sense of narrative it carries,”said Marcia Harvey Isaksson, founder and director of Southnord. “There’s a kind of emotional precision in how she works with fibre and form—inviting us to think about what it means to mend, to carry, and to remember.”

Viola Nimuhamya will present her first solo exhibition at Southnord in this fall.

Opening date: 3 September 2025
Exhibition Dates: 3 September –31October, 2025

For questions and high-resolution images, please contact:

Georgètte Dwomoh-Appiah
Project Coordinator
georgette@southnord.com

Or: hello@southnord.com