Joana Vasconcelos (born 1971) is a Portuguese

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

known for her large-scale installations.

Biography

Vasconcelos was born in 1971 in Paris, France. Her family returned home to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

after their exile to France and following the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

in 1974. She studied at the Centro de Arte & Comunicação Visual in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. In 2009 she received the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...

. She lives and works in Lisbon.

Work

Vasconcelos exhibited at the 2005

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

where she included ''A Noiva (The Bride)'', a 20 ft. high

chandelier A chandelier () is an ornamental lighting device, typically with spreading branched supports for multiple lights, designed to be hung from the ceiling. Chandeliers are often ornate, and they were originally designed to hold candles, but now inca ...

made of over 14,000 OB Tampons. In June 2011, the installation "Contaminação" opened the group exhibition ''The World Belongs to You'', held at

Palazzo Grassi Palazzo Grassi (also known as the Palazzo Grassi-Stucky) is a building in the Venetian Classical style located on the Grand Canal of Venice (Italy), between the Palazzo Moro Lin and the campo San Samuele. History First owners During the 16th ...

. In 2012, Vasconcelos showed her work at the major annual contemporary art exhibition in the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

. She was the first woman and the youngest contemporary artist to exhibit in Versailles. In 2013 the artist represented

in a solo show at the country's pavilion at the

. The work "Trafaria Praia" was installed in an anchored boat and at the same time a floating

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

. In 2018 Vasconcelos presented the retrospective exhibition "I'm Your Mirror" at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, in Spain, having been the only Portuguese artist to accomplish the honor. The exhibition comprised 30 works representing 25 years of her artistic career. In 2020, Vasconcelos created a massive site specific work, "Valkyrie Mumbet" at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design Museum (MAAM) in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, MA. This exhibition was her first solo show in the United States. The work is part of a series of large scale pieces the artist creates for specific spaces, in homage to inspiring women connected with that location. This particular work honors Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman, an enslaved woman whose court battle for her freedom in 1781 helped make slavery illegal in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. In 2024, she exhibited her ''Valkyrie Mumbet'' (2020) installation and towering ''Tree Of Life'' (2023), with its 110,000 hand-stitched fabric leaves at the launching of the newly opened

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

International Contemporary Arts Space (MICAS).

Solo exhibitions (selection)

* 2023: ''Plug-in'', Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Belém, Lisbon, Portugal. * 2020: ''Valkyrie Mumbet'', MassArt Art Museum, at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design,

, Massachusetts, United States * 2018: ''I'm Your Mirror'', Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain * 2013: ''Trafaria Praia'', Portuguese Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale,

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, Italy * 2012: ''Royal Valkyrie'', Château de Versailles, France * 2010: ''I Will Survive'', Haunch of Venison,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom

Group exhibitions (selection)

* 2011: ''Res Publica'', Centenário da República,

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of the wealthiest charitable founda ...

, Lisbon, Portugal

Gallery

File:CCA Cafesjian Sculpture Garden.jpg File:Street Art Porto (38623540426).jpg File:Coração Independente Vermelho (Joana Vasconcelos).jpg File:Palácio de Belém - Joana Vasconcelos.jpg File:Nectar de Joana Vasconcelos.jpg File:Joana Vasconcelos - Pop Galo 2016 (32744196928).jpg, The ''Pop Galo'' in Barcelos (December 2018 - September 2019) File:Pop Galo (49687321337).jpg, The ''Pop Galo'' in the

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barb ...

(March 7, 2020 - January 2022)

Notes

External links

Official Site