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 an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
known for her large-scale installations.
Biography
Vasconcelos was born in 1971 in Paris, France.
Her family returned home to Portugal after their exile to France and following the
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...
in 1974.
She studied at the Centro de Arte & Comunicação Visual in
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
.
In 2009 she received the
Order of Prince Henry
The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...
.
She lives and works in Lisbon.
Work
Vasconcelos exhibited at the 2005
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
where she included ''A Noiva (The Bride)'', a 20 ft. high
chandelier
A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent li ...
made of over 14,000 OB
Tampon
A tampon is a feminine hygiene, menstrual product designed to absorb blood and vaginal secretions by insertion into the vagina during menstruation. Unlike a Sanitary napkin, pad, it is placed internally, inside of the vaginal canal. Once inser ...
s.
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 cen ...
.
In 2012, Vasconcelos showed her work at the major annual contemporary art exhibition in the
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...
. She was the first woman and the youngest contemporary artist to exhibit in Versailles.
In 2013 the artist represented
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
in a solo show at the country's pavilion at the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
. 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 lon ...
.
In 2018 Vasconcelos presented the retrospective exhibition "I'm Your Mirror" at the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spa ...
, in Spain, having been the only
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
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
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation’s oldest art schools, the only publicly funded independent art school ...
Museum (MAAM) in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
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
Elizabeth Freeman ( 1744 December 28, 1829), also known as Bet, Mum Bett, or MumBet, was the first enslaved African Americans, African American to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling, i ...
, an enslaved person in Massachusetts who sued to win her freedom.
Solo exhibitions (selection)
* 2020: ''Valkyrie Mumbet'', MassArt Art Museum, at the
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation’s oldest art schools, the only publicly funded independent art school ...
,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts, United States
* 2018: ''I'm Your Mirror'',
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spai ...
, Bilbao, Spain
* 2013: ''Trafaria Praia'', Portuguese Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale,
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, Italy
* 2012: ''Royal Valkyrie'',
Château de Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
, France
* 2011: ''Res Publica'', Centenário da República,
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One o ...
, Lisbon, Portugal
* 2010: ''I Will Survive'', Haunch of Venison,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, United Kingdom
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 Galo may refer to:
People
* Galo Blanco (born 1976), Spanish tennis player
* Galo Chiriboga, Ecuadorian lawyer, politician and administrator
* Galo Galecio (1906–1993), Ecuadorian painter, sculptor, caricaturist and printmaker
* Galo Ocampo (19 ...
'' 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 Barbar ...
(March 7, 2020 - January 2022)
Notes
External links
Official Site
Further reading
* Vasconcelos, Joana (2019). ''Joana Vasconcelos''. Christian K. Scheffel, Christof Trepesch, Peter Joch, Galerie Scheffel. Köln, 2019. .
OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
1090543439.
* Vasconcelos, Joana (2019). ''Joana Vasconcelos: maximal''. Achim Sommer, Max Ernst Museum. Munich. .
OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
1110580869
* Vasconcelos, Joana (2018). ''I'm your mirror''. Enrique Juncosa, Petra Joos, Isalina Conde, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Museu Seralves, Kunsthal Rotterdam. Bilbao. .
OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
1057784624.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasconcelos, Joana
1971 births
Living people
Artists from Paris
French emigrants to Portugal
People from Lisbon
20th-century Portuguese women artists
21st-century Portuguese women artists
Portuguese contemporary artists