Meet the Artists Desenio Art Awards

Julia Humbla – Painter of the Year 2026

Julia’s work was picked for the refined and emotionally resonant figurative practice. With a restrained palette and a delicate visual rhythm, she captures moments of human closeness with remarkable sensitivity and clarity. 

Based in Stockholm, Julia spends several weeks of every summer in the local Archipelago. “Nature is where I find most of my inspiration, in the changing seasons, the quiet landscapes and the everyday moments with my children.” She brings the ideas back to the family’s apartment where they are transformed into paintings with a very distinct sense of tranquillity.

“I hope my work offers a sense of calm in a fast-moving world. If someone pauses for a moment, feels something familiar, or is reminded of a memory they thought they had forgotten, the I feel I have succeeded.” 

Julia was born into a creative family, so her career choice has always been respected. “Painting has always felt like a part of who I am,” she says, “I often leave parts of my paintings undefined, allowing the viewer to complete the story with their own memories and emotions.” 

And how is an idea for a painting born? “It can be the movement of a beautiful dress, the texture of a fabric, or a fleeting moment with my daughters. Whenever something touches me, I try to capture the feeling it gave me.”

The four winning artworks are connected by themes of relationships, longing, dreams and a sense of belonging. Julia says, “The woman holding the swan represents, to me, the feeling of missing something. It could be a person, a moment, or simply a feeling that once existed but now only remains as a beautiful memory.”

Was she surprised to hear she had won? “Yes, completely. I was at our summer house with my children, when my phone rang from an unknown number. It was Desenio. She said, almost quietly, 'You can’t tell anyone yet, but you’ve won.' I immediately burst into tears. I think I just kept saying, 'What? No, are you serious? I don’t understand,' over and over again.”

Joel Mellström – Graphic Artist of the Year 2026

The jury was drawn to Joel’s surreal compositions that open contemplative spaces where the familiar becomes poetic, ambiguous and subtly unsettling. Joel is creative in his day job in Stockholm, but pursues his own art in his spare time. Heavily influenced by film, he creates dream-like scenes that blend the surreal with the fantastic.

Joel has always been creative but it wasn’t until his late twenties that he found his way into making digital collages. “I love to create landscapes with bold colours that might look sort of like a snapshot of a dream. I’m especially interested in the space between the real and the imagined, where familiar elements shift into something unexpected.”

So how does the creative process look for creating digital collages? “It’s really just me flipping through a bunch of pictures, too see if anything sparks an idea. When I find the perfect first piece, the vision for the whole artwork comes almost instantaneously.”

As a self-confessed film nerd, Joel gets a lot of inspiration from different directors. His all-time favourite is Wes Anderson. “He is pretty much the reason behind me finding my creative voice. I owe him a lot.”

And what of the artworks that helped him to win this award? “I wanted to showcase some of my favourite pieces, and how my creativity has evolved over the years. Every piece of the selection of artworks has that dream-like yet familiar feeling that I strive towards with my art.”

But how did it feel to win the award? “Getting to hear about winning my category some months later was an absolutely wild feeling. As someone who, even though I’m a full time creative, lives in a constant state of impostor syndrome, it also felt very reassuring and flattering to have won.”

Hanna Göransson – Photographer of the Year 2026

The jury was drawn Hanna’s artistic capacity for clarity, wit and strong visual conviction. Her work turns familiar objects and gestures into compositions that are both playful and arresting.

Hanna’s interest for photography began in her teenage years. Hailing from Hälsingland, a fairly rural part of Sweden, she was always surrounded by craft: “It was just something me and my sisters did,” she says. Now she has one focus, “I love the art of photography because it’s so versatile, creative and can take you so many places.”

So how does her creative process look? “Sometimes everything is planned down to each image, but most of the time, my process is hands-on and experimental.” She tends to go with the flow and follow her intuition. “I like taking ordinary things and bringing them into unexpected compositions, or simply highlighting everyday things that we usually walk by.”

She’s drawn to colourful contrasts and always aims for her subjects to be full of life. “I like to create a balance between the polished and the imperfect.”

Inspiration comes from many places. “I’m inspired by everyday glimmers, colours on houses, graphic design, friends and family, nature, and people on the street.” And as for the work that captured the jury’s eye, it was a final project during her studies in Stockholm. “The idea was to explore contrast through digital photography, specifically that moment where the polished crashes into the sticky, and unexpected details force you to look closer. I used everyday materials like cigarette packs, fries, noodles, ketchup, fried eggs and soft-serve ice cream. My goal was to create friction.”

Was she surprised when she got the call to tell her she had won the Photographer of the Year Award? “Yes, totally! I know how many amazing creators applied, so hearing that my work stood out to the jury was such an incredible, surreal surprise. Having this project recognised in such a big way gives me a boost of confidence.”

Joeyline Tannous – Illustrator of the Year 2026

Joeyline’s colourful work caught the jury’s eye its intimate and characterful depictions of everyday life. Through expressive colour, familiar motifs and an assured sense of composition, she transforms ordinary scenes into works that feel personal, vivid and engaging.

When we asked her, Joeyline wasn’t really sure when she started to consider herself an artist. Her roots in Lebanon may have something to do with it. “I come from a culture where people care about aesthetics, but art is seen as a pastime, a hobby and not a career worth taking seriously. Architecture became the bridge I used to leverage a serious career while still seeking out the joy of creativity and art.”

She describes her works as imperfect, fun and colourful. “I don’t like to limit myself to a certain style, as I like to experiment a lot.  It’s a sort of reimagining or merging of classical still life with modern Instagram food posts that uses just enough perspective to make sense, but not enough dimension to take itself seriously. It’s art I want to hang in my own home.”

She may spend some time planning her work, but when she begins, it is often ignored. “When I start mixing colours, I end up completely disregarding most of the planning, and just have fun. It’s about trial and error, and trusting the process, even if it looks messy or chaotic, because sometimes spontaneous ideas make things more fun.”

The work she submitted to the award features a series of moments centred around eating and drinking. “Food brings people together. The objective was not to make it a hyper realistic version, but rather somewhat cartoonish, with clearly defined edges, which in reality, gave me more freedom to experiment with colour blocking and keeping the imperfections prominent.”

How did it feel to get the news that she had won Illustrator of the Year? “It gave me the validation that I needed that yes, I am an artist, and I can share my art. It showed me that taking the courage to put myself out there, to try, can lead to incredible results. I needed a sign to prove to myself that this is something I can do, that I can take seriously, and the universe responded tenfold.”

Marine Aimée – Emerging Talent of the Year 2026

Marine’s art caught the eye of the jury for a deeply introspective and emotionally articulate body of work. Her paintings navigate themes of grief, healing and human complexity with both sensitivity and strength.

Based in Calgary, Canada, Marine works from a home studio. She loves having a quiet space to create because so much of her work is rooted in reflection. “The landscape here has a sense of openness to it, which I think mirrors the space I try to create through my work. Somewhere people can simply feel.”

Marine has always been creative, but her path to art was not a linear one. “At different points I wanted to be a writer, a professor, even an archaeologist. Looking back, I don't think those years were wasted. They taught me a lot about myself and helped me understand what truly fulfilled me.” When Marine experienced a difficult breakup in her twenties, she finally picked up a paintbrush and began to create art as a way to process her emotions.

“What began as a coping mechanism slowly became something much deeper.” How would she describe her work? “A lot of my work sits in the space between vulnerability and strength. I'm interested in the emotions we don't always have words for, the quiet moments of self-discovery, the tension of becoming, and the stories we carry beneath the surface.”

When she is actually painting, it’s a careful balance between intention and intuition. While she might start with a loose plan, some of her favourite moments happen when she allows the painting to evolve naturally and resists forcing it to become something it isn’t. And what does winning this award mean to her? “I believe this award stands for more than artistic achievement. It celebrates artists who contribute to a creative culture built on connection, generosity, and growth. Being considered has been an honour, and becoming part of that community is an opportunity I value far beyond the award itself.”

Her winning artworks layer storytelling with emotional vulnerability. “These pieces were deeply influenced by my own experiences with self-discovery, and learning to confront the parts of myself that were shaped by past experiences. I became interested in those moments when we really start to recognize ourselves more openly, we question the stories and beliefs we've carried, and make space for change.”

Samuel Centrella – Mixed Media & Urban Artist of the Year 2026

"Samuel’s work was picked out by the jury for a powerful and uncompromising artistic voice. His expressive works unfold through gesture, layering and material experimentation, resulting in compositions that feel immediate and emotionally charged.

What path did he take to become an artist? “When I was a kid, my grandmother gave me charcoal and sketching paper. Drawing became my life. I kept notebooks that I didn’t show to anyone because it wasn’t about a presentation. It came so naturally to me that I never realised it was something I could pursue as a career. He followed several other routes before accepting that his true craft was painting: dancer, performing musical theatre, acting playwriting and film.

Based in New York City, he sees painting as a dialogue between viewer and artist. “The best painters tell me exactly how they feel withing the first two seconds of looking at their work.”  His creative process follows a particular pattern. He begins with meditation to set the right frame of mind. “When I quiet my mind, my intuition takes over and I can just paint. I don’t think, I don’t plan, I simply allow myself to connect.” Once he gets started, he draws on his time as a dancer and uses jazz to guide his movements. “It’s all about keeping my mind out of it.” Abstraction is hugely important to him. “Through abstraction I can explore what it means and feels like to be a human.”

And how did it feel to be recognised by the Desenio Art Award Jury? “I was so surprised! It was truly thrilled just to be selected as a finalist among the very talented artists in my category. What an honour to be selected as the first winner of the Mixed Media and Urban Artist of the Year Award.”  Samuel’s winning artworks are made up of four large abstract paintings. “I started with blank hardboard and added gouache and acrylic paints. I mixed this layer wet on wet, which gives the dry paint a feeling of movement and freedom. As the first layer dried, it gave me a rhythmic landscape to add layers on top.

The more I play and dance around the hardboard I am given a cohesive piece. Somewhere in the midst of painting, I feel overwhelmingly complete.” Explore the winning artworks from each artist on their Featured Artist page, perhaps you will discover a new favourite.