Hugo Llanes is an artist and cultural facilitator based in Reykjavík. Exploring political and social issues through artistic research and a wide range of media – including installation, performance, and expanded painting – his work examines themes such as migration and adaptation, belonging, power dynamics, and post-colonial identity. Llanes often incorporates food into his practice, inviting audience participation and engagement.

Recent exhibitions include “Your Addiction is the Message!” at Gallery 99 – Brno House of Arts in the Czech Republic; “Los Primxs”, a performance in collaboration with Lucky 3 Collective at Local Taller Artist-run in Xalapa, Mexico; “goodgonebadwrong” at the Living Art Museum in Iceland; and “Tracing Fragments” at the Kópavogur Art Museum, Iceland, which was awarded Best Group Show by the Icelandic Art Prize in 2024.

Llanes’s “MONUMENTAL” series was awarded by the Bienal de Veracruz for its investigation of gesture, action, and artistic decision-making through the lenses of performativity and anti-monumentality. His visual essay Cañaverales de la Verdadera Cruz (Cane Fields of La Verdadera Cruz) was published in ISLARIO – Islands Are Also Displaced: Dialogues about Art, Politics, and Territory (Mexico, 2024). This essay addresses extractivist practices in Veracruz, rural labor, ecological harm, and territorial issues.

Llanes was selected for the Saari Residency by KONE in 2022 and, in 2023, was the Iceland-based artist for The Cross Residency between Nýló and Artistes en Résidence in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
As a cultural facilitator in Iceland, Llanes introduces contemporary art to minority communities from the Americas living in Reykjavík and its capital area. He collaborates and contributes on initiatives such as Komd’inn, Artists in Iceland Action Visa Group and GETA, and since 2022, he has led the Latin American Film Festival Reykjavík.

He holds an MA in Fine Art from the Iceland University of the Arts and a BA in Visual Arts from the Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico.