Lovisa Sköld Named 2026 Festival Artist

Lovisa Sköld is the artist behind the official poster for Göteborg Film Festival 2026. The Swedish painter has gained international recognition with her signature style and impeccable technical skill — fusing the fabulous with the mundane in oil paintings centering eye-popping glossy motifs. 

Photo: Ola Kjelbye

Lovisa Sköld (born 1985) moved from her native Småland to Gothenburg twenty years ago, where her creative spark was ignited at the HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design. Following her Art Education degree in 2011 she worked briefly as a teacher before devoting herself fully to her artistic career.  

“Creating the poster för Göteborg Film Festival is something of a dream for me! I’ve lived in this city for a long time and been to many editions of the festival, so this opportunity — to create an artwork that will be visible all over town and on the cover of the Festival Programme — feels incredibly special and meaningful”, says Lovisa Sköld. 

In recent years, her hyperrealistic paintings have attracted significant media attention as her work has been exhibited across Sweden, as well as the Room57 Gallery in New York. The piece she created for Göteborg Film Festival 2026 naturally carries her artistic signature: glossy latex-like garments — a visual language she connects with this year’s thematic focus, Focus: Truth. 

“I always work with shiny materials. For me, they symbolize surface — something that reflects how we live today, especially the superficiality we see on social media. The images we present of ourselves there doesn’t always reflect the truth”, says Lovisa Sköld.