During a winter that has seemed rainier, windier, stormier – and longer – than ever, it is fair to say that Ibiza residents are looking forward to dreary skies being broken up by spring’s vivid colours! But while we patiently count the days, the annual Las Cicadas Art Residency is providing a much-needed injection of vibrant hues into and joie de vivre to gently lure us out of hibernation.
Now in its fourth edition, what began as an intimate winter gathering of artists has evolved into one of the island’s most compelling cultural initiatives. And in 2026, the residency not only returns – it has expanded.
Running from 12 January to 23 February 2026, this year’s programme has been extended from the usual four to six weeks, making it the longest edition to date. This year, the Las Cicadas Art Residency also sees the largest cohort yet participating, reflecting both the growing ambition of the project and the increasing demand from multidisciplinary artists eager to immerse themselves in Ibiza’s inimitable and inspiring environment.
Founded and organised by Las Cicadas owners Tavis Buschman and Nora Bullerjahn together with gallerist and curator Sarah Suco Torres – who brings experience from blue-chip contemporary galleries in New York, Brussels and Paris – the Art Residency offers a creative oasis from which the participating talent can work, seek inspiration in Ibiza’s evocative landscapes, ancient history and local culture, experiment with their craft and make new connections during the island’s quieter months.
Set within the stunning Las Cicadas private hire venue – a lovingly restored 500-year-old farmhouse just a stone’s throw from the charming village of Santa Gertrudis – each artist is given their own living quarters and access to studio spaces dotted around the grounds. Regular excursions and visits to other artistic destinations allow the participants to engage deeply with the island’s natural landscape and local community.
When we visit the Las Cicadas Art Residency just over a week away from its annual Open Studio, which marks the end of the programme and an opportunity for the public to come see the artwork created during the artists’ time on Ibiza, upon arrival we are greeted by a pyramid installation by US artist Kathryn Garcia in the courtyard. Indeed, during the residency, art can be found around every corner as you drop in and out of the different rooms and buildings – like a treasure hunt!
We catch up with Sarah Succo Torres, who has been organising the project since 2023.
She says, “This year, we were able to welcome more artists than usual thanks to a new partnership with Corinthian Contemporary Art, which is a foundation based on the island who are trying to promote artistic projects from Ibiza. We also extended the timeframe to six weeks, so the artists have more time to discover the island and produce their artworks.
“We are super happy that it’s the fourth edition because the Art Residency is growing and every year we have more visibility and support. We are also collaborating more and more with associations, foundations and galleries from Ibiza – for example, this year we have Charles Burnex, who is represented by Galeria Tambien – and the idea is that the artists have the opportunity to connect with not only the places, but also the history and the culture of the island, and eventually work with the local craftsmen or collaborate with Ibiza-based artists.
“As we know, Ibiza has a very strong history of artists and intellectuals coming here since the 1930s and 1940s, so it’s important to ensure that we keep this connection alive. And we want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everybody from the island who has helped us to make it happen.”
The Las Cicadas Art Residency is also supported by CAN Art Fair Ibiza (Contemporary Art Now), who, for the second year in a row, has provided an Acquisition & Residency Awards. During last year’s edition of CAN Ibiza in June 2025, Las Cicadas was delighted to give two prizes to Jamie Bragg (Gathering Gallery) and Rob Tucker (193 Gallery).
The 2026 artist cohort living and creating at Las Cicadas brings together a dynamic selection of emerging and established voices. From the UK, Louis Appleby, Maija Carr and Georgia Dymock; from France, Charles Burnex; from Germany, Lena Marie Emrich and Tom Król; from Sweden, Olivia Maria Rus; from Russia, Natalya Gudovich and Elizaveta Barsega; and from New Zealand, Rob Tucker. Their chosen media range from painting to sculpting, multimedia, ceramics, film and textile, reflecting the residency’s dedication to interdisciplinary dialogue.
In fact, Olivia Maria Rus, who is a filmmaker by trade, tells us that sharing a space with so many other artists encouraged her to step outside of her comfort zone and try something new during her time at Las Cicadas.
“I collaborate with a lot of artists and one of them is a Danish-Kurdish artist, and last November we went to Kurdistan together, which was a very moving experience for me – and during my time here in Ibiza I am humbly trying to draw the landscapes of Kurdistan as I saw them. We travelled a lot, we climbed a lot of mountains and swam in the rivers and lakes, so I really wanted to capture that because it left such a big impression on me”, she tells us.
“This is the first time I’m working on a triptych, and my original intention was to work with my usual format – but after speaking to the other artists and to Sarah I realised I really wanted to do a big piece. I’m also experimenting with new styles and colours, and I was really encouraged to do that – so I thought, let’s go! I only have this particular residency once, and I’m super happy I’ve pushed myself.”
Working alongside her in the studio is Finnish-British textile designer and tapestry weaver Maija Carr, who has been working with a majority of recycled materials sourced from all over island, including denim fabric found at Sant Jordi market, marine rope from the port of Ibiza, alpaca wool from the Es Currals Alpaca Farm in the North.
Working on a commissioned piece, Maija is turning the multi-coloured and textured pieces of string into a tapestry depicting the seaview on the coastline of Cala de Bou.
She says, “It’s incredible to be a part of this, because everybody is working in different disciplines – and I’m the first tapestry weaver to join the programme. We are all of different ages, and at different stages of our careers, so it’s really interesting to hear everyone’s stories and draw from their wealth of life experiences. Being here, it’s a great space to experiment with different media because you’re naturally inspired through the dialogue with the other artists.”
Outside in the gardens, we find German sculptor Lena Marie Emrich weathering the strong winds that have held the island in their grip since the start of the year.
She laughs, “I am here working outside because I normally live between Germany and Belgium, so the winters are very intense. But here on the island, there are other sensations of climate change going on because we have the most stormy winter the island has seen in decades, but still, for me to be able to work outside and connected with the island like that, and to sense the wind – and be distracted by the wind – somehow is nice in a way!”
“During my time here I’ve been very focused on abstraction, but as a form of seduction to new ways of thinking. It’s about working with very minimalist speaking forms that then open a discussion. They catch the eye of the observer, but then they have a deeper meaning within the material – even though they are very simple geometric forms,” she explains.
“For example, I have been working with parts of old sunbeds – and I chose this material because it’s also problematic. The plastic is rotting on the beaches because the sunbeds are thrown out after a couple of seasons, and there is no proper recycling system in place, so my work is also a very tender critique. But I don’t like to point the finger; I like to create something poetic to feel and sense it, and perhaps provoke a change of thinking.
Lena Marie continues, “I always try to find an elevation for the material and this time I’m working with a local car painter from Sant Jordi to spray these sharp, minimalist shapes with a highly glossy metallic but earthy colours – a red bronze, which for me represents this island, and a very deep green that you can find in the Sabina trees.
“They [the sunbed elements] look like bones, or a skeleton, when you take them out, and I wrote this fragmented poem to be displayed alongside them: ‘Stacked in the shadows, weather-worn, resistant, stacked bodies resisting, liability, let the function slip away… Can I intercept this process, elevating the rigid?’”
Across the courtyard, Charles Burnex is working in his quarters – a two-level room that allows him to step straight from his living space into the mini studio he has set up next to a historic olive press – an original feature that remains from Las Cicadas’ agricultural roots.
A French contemporary artist based in Paris, Charles works across painting, ceramics, metal sculpture, drawing, and textile. Inspired by mythology, fantasy, and urban culture, we catch him as he emerges from an intense session committing iconic Ibizan symbols to canvas.
“You have the trees, the clouds, the tumbleweed… people dancing, having hallucinations… Some doing yoga,” he laughs. “It’s very Ibiza.”
“I’ve also been painting on these military shirts from the Aegean war, creating an artistic camouflage on the fabrics with forms and words.”
Charles, who is represented by Galeria Tambien, visits Ibiza regularly for work and to spend time with friends. During his stay at Las Cicadas, he has enjoyed the duality of the experience: “It’s been super cool. I’m going into town to watch the football and eat a burger, and then I come back here and paint. It’s super fun.”
Finally, we arrive in the painter’s building, where we encounter four more artists at work.
We catch contemporary painter Tom Król, usually based in Berlin, as he is packing up his materials for the day – but he still takes the time to chat to us for a moment. His artistic practice explores the potential of community and communication, taking an aesthetic of the everyday as a starting point and playing with supposedly familiar forms and motifs in a decontextualization of findings and rediscoveries.
Having tried to connect with the island’s art scene over the years, Tom says he noticed a turning point in 2021 – with the arrival of CAN Ibiza, where he became acquainted with Las Cicadas Art Residency organiser and curator, Sarah.
“For me, I was excited by the challenge to start from scratch in a new location because in my atelier at home I always have something or another to build on. But it was an interesting process for me to acclimatise myself in these new surroundings, with different materials, different spaces, and different people around me – and to see how it affects my work,” he says.
“It’s been really fun to get to know our international group, too, who all have different backgrounds and styles. The community we have established here during the residency is really amazing, and I’m looking forward to the Open Studio and for everyone to come and have a look at what we have done here. It’s been a great experience.”
In the next room, British artist Georgia Dymock is working on two fantastical, colourful paintings that pop off the canvas with an almost three-dimensional quality.
Taking inspiration from Surrealism, Pop Art, Fragmented Cubism, and Neo Classicism, the painter has been diving deep into the folklore and mythology of Ibiza during her stay at Las Cicadas.
She says, “I had been to Ibiza on a holiday some years ago, but when I started doing the research for the residency it was really interesting to learn about the other side of the island, and its mythology. I came across Tanit, the Goddess, and Es Vedrá with its sirens, and I got really pulled in by the story of Odysseus and the dreamlike Utopian and Dystopian worlds he enters.”
As if pulled by a magnetic force, Russian multi-media artist Natalya Gudovich’s larger-than-life paintings draw us into the next room.
Based in Carrara, Italy, which is renowned for its marble, Natalya also crafts sculptures from the luxurious material – and the metamorphic rock also appears “like heroes” in her paintings.
“I’m collecting sculptures from all over the world; for example the ones you see here are from Egypt and from Luni, a small village near Carrara that was very important in the Roman Empire,” she says.
In awe of the two enormous paintings in front of us, Natalya tells us more, “These two figures, they are male and female, son and womb. I’m also studying alchemy, which really fits the Ibiza vibe, and it’s really like a chemical reaction – so the black sun you see here is symbolic of a volcanic alchemical transformation.”
Speaking of transformation, the artist is hoping to be able to contribute one of her marble sculptures to Ibiza in the future – specifically to the fountain on Santa Eulalia’s seaside promenade, an idea we heartily agree with!
She laughs, “I really want to do it, but marble is expensive – so we have to find a sponsor!”
Art Institute to curating and producing exhibition projects.
Our final stop on the studio tour is the atelier of Louis Appleby, who is exploring themes of environmental collapse, dystopian futures, and the evolving condition of humanity in the post-digital era through his art, drawing from the visual languages of computer graphics, animation, and science fiction.
During his time at Las Cicadas, he has created a series of still life and landscape paintings inspired by the island – particularly its beautiful sunset and night skies.
“It is completely different here in the winter,” Louis says. “But what I like about Ibiza is that you never know who you’re going to bump into – I’ve met people from all over the world.
“We’ve also been to quite a few openings during the residency, as well as the MACE Contemporary Art Museum and Estudi Tur Costa. It’s been great to be surrounded by so many other artists who are making cool work – back at home, in my studio in the North of England, it’s mostly just me there. I’ve really enjoyed my time here.”
Having lost all sense of time during our immersion into the creative and colourful haven that Las Cicadas becomes every year, we have missed the final two participating artists: Rob Tucker, who won one of the coveted Acquisition & Residency Awards at CAN Ibiza last summer, and Elizaveta Barsega.
But with the annual Open Studio an established fixture on the island’s cultural calendar, we’re sure to see them at the final celebration.
And a reason to celebrate, it is. At a time when many creative spaces face uncertainty, Las Cicadas demonstrates that Ibiza’s art scene, through collaboration, international exchange and community spirit, continues to thrive.
Join the Las Cicadas Art Residency 2026 Open Studio on Saturday, February 21st, from 5pm until 7:30pm.
For further information visit lascicadas.com/artist-residency and follow @lascicadasartresidency on Instagram. With special thanks to Sarah Succo Torres and Valentine Riccardi for the photography.
