Okay, I’m officially obsessed. I tried to pick just one of these pieces to showcase, but how could I not show you the giant mirror mask, the Marilyn shoes made out of pot and pans {that’s the artist, for scale!}, and a fabulous, feathery, burlesque-looking “Lilicoptère” exhibited at Versailles?! These beauties are just the tip of the absolutely gorgeous iceberg that is the portfolio of Lisbon based artist Joana Vasconcelos… and clearly, the art world agrees. Here’s a tiny snippet from her CV. Look at this badass list:
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 a solo exhibition at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the project Trafaria Praia, for the Pavilion of Portugal at the 55th Venice Biennale; 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).
Damn.
I saw 2 pieces of Joana’s work at Jupiter Artland, in Scotland, a couple years ago. The Marilyn shoe is outdoors, against an ochre building for backdrop, inside its own little garden. Inside the ochre building is a necklace charm (blown up to huge scale!) made of plastic utensils, swaying like a pendulum… both these pieces were completely successful in taking in their surroundings, and scooping you/ the viewer into a different realm. The potlid shoe was just wonderful— all those outdoor little mirrors drawing you in…. Just wonderful.
ah, amazing!!! i hope to see them in person one day : )