JOANA VASCONCELOS Portugal, b. 1971

Born in 1971, Joana Vasconcelos is a Portuguese visual artist with a career spanning over 30 years and a huge variety of media. Recognised 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.
International acclaim arrived in 2005 with The Bride at the first Venice Biennale curated by women where she has returned three times to date. In 2013 at the helm of Trafaria Praia she represented Portugal as the first ever floating pavilion at the event. She was the first woman and youngest artist to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles. In 2012 her exhibition was the most visited in France in 50 years with a record 1.6 million visitors. In 2018 she became the first Portuguese artist to have an individual exhibition at Guggenheim Bilbao. It was the third most visited in the history of the museum and according to The Art Newspaper the fourth best that year. In 2023 she was granted the honour to exhibit at the Uffizi Galleries and Pitti Palace in Florence alongside classical masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo or Caravaggio. Her Wedding Cake for Waddesdon Manor was considered "the first wholeheartedly joyful artistic masterpiece of the 21st century" by The Guardian and came second in its "best art and architecture" 2023 list.
Her artworks have also graced exhibits around the world such as Grassi Palace, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Royal Academy of Arts, Manchester Art Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Kunsthal Rotterdam, São Paulo's CCBB and Pinacoteca, Istanbul Modern, Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Le Centquatre and La Monnaie Paris, Palais de Tokyo and Hermitage. Additionally, she integrates the collections Tia, Ömer Koç, Berardo, The Rothschild Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian, Culturgest, François Pinault and Louis Vuitton.
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 manages the Joana Vasconcelos Studio with over 50 employees since 2006 and 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.)