Joana Vasconcelos

Overview

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.

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Works

Biography

Joana Vasconcelos (1971, Paris, France. Lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal).

Sellected solo-exhibitions: Around the World, Casa Triângulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Flamboyant, Palacio de Liria, Madrid, Spain (2025); Enchanted Forest, Taikoo Place, Hong Kong, China; Le Château des Valkyries, Eisenkunstguss Museum, Büdelsdorf/Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany; Joana Vasconcelos, Musée Mohammed VI d'art moderne et contemporain, Rabat, Morocco; LSD - Liberdade, Solidariedade e Democracia, Central Artística de Bueño/Casa de las Artes y las Ciencias, Asturias, Spain (2024); Between Sky and Heart, Galleria degli Uffizi/Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy; Wedding Cake, Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, England; Valkyrie Miss Dior, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France; Plug In, Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (2023); Crowned Idols, Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, Siracusa, Italy; Joana Vasconcelos: stupid furniture, Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy (2022); Beyond, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, England (2020); I'm your Mirror, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (2018) and Joana Vasconcelos - Textures of Life, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark (2016).

Sellected group-exhibition: Énormement Bizarre, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2025); Porto de Nós: confluências transnacionais, Central das Artes, Porto de Mós, Portugal; O Mundo começa aqui!, Museu Monte Palace Madeira, Madeira, Portugal (2024), Histórias de uma Coleção: arte moderna e contemporânea do CAM, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal; Obrigado à Terra, Palácio dos Duques de Cadaval, Évora, Portugal; The Sky's the Limit, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA (2023), Interaction Napoli 2022, Fondazione Made in Cloister, Naples, Italy; Portugal POP: a moda em português 1970-2020, Casa do Design, Matosinhos, Portugal; Tout ce que Je Veux: artistes portugaises de 1900 à 2020, Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré, Tours, France; Faraós Superstars, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal; (2022); Glasstress, Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Venice, Italy; A Metade do Céu, Museu Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, Lisbon, Portugal (2019); 250^th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England (2018) and Revival, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA (2017).

Public Collections: Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seol, South Korea; ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark; ARTIUM: Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Fondation Cab, Brussels, Belgium; Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; Hôtel de Ville de Paris, Paris, France; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas, Elvas, Portugal; Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Lisboa, Portugal; Coleção de Arte Fundação EDP, Lisbon, Portugal; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, França; FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, France; Fundação Bissaya Barreto, Coimbra, Portugal; Fundação PLMJ, Lisbon, Portugal; Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva, Lisbon, Portugal; Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Palma de Maiorca, Spain; Instituto Camões, Paris, France; Le Royal Monceau, Paris, France; Manchester City Galleries Collection, Manchester, England; Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo, Badajoz, Spain; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain; Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA; Pinault Collection, Paris/Venice, France/Italy; Selfridges' Art Collection, London, England; Villa Emerige, Paris, France and The Rothschild Collection (Rothschild Family Trust), Buckinghamshire, England.

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exhibitions