Overview Artist CV Press Release

Joana Vasconcelos

Recent Works

4 June – 14 September 2018

The show encompasses recent works from many areas of her practice, featuring traditional Portuguese crafts like knitting and crochet, as well as the tradition of porcelain ceramics. Often embellished with tassels, crystals and beads, her work is a dazzling patchwork of patterns, shapes and textures.

Joana Vasconcelos’ distinctive sculptural practice, which is highly decorative, belies her interest in feminist issues. Since showing A Noiva (The Bride, 2001-05) in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, Joana has subtly championed the role of women in society and made domestic objects and the role of women in family life central to her activities.

The show at Albion Barn precedes her major exhibition I’m Your Mirror at Guggenheim Bilbao, which will run from June 29 – November 11, 2018. A further important piece by Joana Vasconcelos has been included in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy to celebrate the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary this year, and curated by Grayson Perry, who was recently introduced to Joana’s work by Michael Hue-Williams. Hanging in the foyer, a magnificently colourful Valkyrie will be the first thing you see as you walk up the stairs of the Royal Academy. On view from June 12 through August 19, 2018 this work was last exhibited in her spectacular exhibition at the Palace of Versailles, in 2012.

Joana Vasconcelos

Recent Works

4 June – 14 September 2018

Joana Vasconcelos was born in 1971 and lives and works in Lisbon. She has exhibited regularly since the mid-1990s. Her work became known internationally after her participation in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, with the work  A Noiva (The Bride, 2001-05). She was the first woman and the youngest artist to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles, in 2012. Recent highlights of her career include ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark (2016); the project Trafaria Praia, for the Pavilion of Portugal at the 55th Venice Biennale; Waddesdon Manor – The Rothschild Foundation, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom (2015); 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2015); the participation in the group exhibition The World Belongs to You at the Palazzo Grassi/François Pinault Foundation, Venice (2011); and her first retrospective, held at the Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2010).

Her work is represented in various private and public collections, including Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul; ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark; Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Lisbon; Centro de Artes Visuales Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain; Domaine Pommery, Reims, France; Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création, Paris; FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, France; Fundação EDP, Lisbon; Gerard L. Cafesjian Collection, Yerevan, Armenia; MACE – Coleção António Cachola, Elvas, Portugal; MUSAC, Léon, Spain; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; and the Pinault Collection, Paris and Venice.