Fine Art nominee

Hitherto emerged from an ongoing exploration of the female body as both landscape and threshold. The photograph presents a nude torso partially dissolving into a dense, cloud-like atmosphere. The body is visible, yet not fully graspable — suspended between presence and disappearance.

At the top of the figure, strange pocket-like hollows open from the surface. They resemble tunnels, wounds, or entrances — ambiguous spaces that suggest interiority without revealing it. These forms disrupt the solidity of the body, transforming it from flesh into terrain. They imply depth, memory, and the unseen architecture carried beneath the skin.

The title came intuitively. “Hitherto” means until now, suggesting a quiet turning point — a moment that holds everything that has been carried up to this instant. The enveloping smoke acts as both concealment and extension, blurring the boundary between body and atmosphere.

Rather than presenting the body as an object, the image evokes it as a site of accumulated experience — porous, changing, and marked by what has passed through it.

Hildur Erna Villiblóm draws inspiration from the emotions, struggles, and beauty of the female experience. She transforms these elements into a bold and expressive visual language, amplifying the subtleties of body language and emotion. Working across various mediums, with the camera as her primary tool, she layers sensorial worlds within physical forms, uncovering the raw intensity, fragility, and power of the female body — pulling both darkness and light into view. Each piece she creates carries its own quiet pulse, a presence that extends beyond the frame.

Villiblóm’s work has been exhibited across Iceland, London, and Scotland, in both solo and collective shows. Her photographs have found homes with art lovers and have adorned book covers and posters. Most recently, one became the album cover for the Icelandic musician Kaktus — a cover that went on to win both the Icelandic Music Award and the FÍT Award for its design.