JOANA VASCONCELOS Portugal, b. 1971

Joana Vasconcelos is a Portuguese visual artist with a career spanning over 30 years and a wide variety of media. Known for her monumental sculptures and immersive installations, she decontextualises everyday objects and updates the arts and crafts concept for the 21st century, establishing a dialogue between the private sphere and public space, popular heritage and refined culture. She questions the status of women, consumer society and collective identity with humour and irony.

Vasconcelos has exhibited three times at the Venice Biennale. In 2005, her installation The Bride drew international acclaim. In 2013 she represented Portugal with the first ever floating pavilion. In 2012 she was the first woman and youngest artist to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles, and her exhibition there drew a record 1.6 million visitors. She is the guest of honor at BRAFA 2025.

Selected recent solo exhibitions include Malta International Contemporary Art Space, Floriana, Malta in 2024 ; Galleria degli Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy ; MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal ; Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes, Paris, France ; Waddesdon Manor, England, UK ; and Jardin de Tuileries, Paris France in 2023 ; Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2019 ; Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain in 2018 and many others.

Selected recent group exhibitions include Arter, Istanbul, Turkey in 2024 ; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA in 2023 ; Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland in 2022 ; The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK and Musée d'Art Contemporain de Marseille, Marseille, France in 2018 ; Mori Arts Center Gallery, Tokyo, Japan in 2017 ; Grand Palais, Paris, France and Saatchi Gallery, London, UK in 2013 ; Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy in 2011 and others.

She received the rank of Commander of the Order of Infante D. Henrique by the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic in 2009 and became an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture in 2022. She founded the Joana Vasconcelos Foundation in 2012 to support social causes, grant scholarships and promote art for all.

(Cover quote from an interview with Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel.)