Great Artists on Campus: João Penalva

João Penalva is one of the most significant Portuguese visual artists in contemporary art. He began in contemporary dance with choreographers including Pina Bausch and Gerhard Bohner, then settled in London, where he studied at Chelsea School of Art and moved into the visual arts. His practice spans painting, installation, photography, video and performance, exploring memory, perception and language. Using found objects, archival materials and literary references, he reconstructs fragmented narratives that move between document and fiction, reality and imagination, questioning the relationship between text, image and sound. His work bridges literature, cinema and visual art and invites the viewer’s creative participation. Penalva represented Portugal at the São Paulo Biennial in 1996 and the Venice Biennale in 2001, has exhibited internationally, taught at Malmö Art Academy and Lund University from 2002 to 2021, and has received awards including the Bryan Robertson Award (2009), the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award (2020) and the Grande Prémio Fundação EDP Arte (2026). His work is held in major public and private collections, including Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea and Fundação EDP. Entry is free with a ticket collected on the day.