The 2024 Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize

I work mainly with across drawing and painting, besides exploring video and installation as means of expansion of my practice. From a documentation process on different sociocultural aspects of Afro-Brazilian history and the African diaspora, I go in search of archives, image banks and flea markets, where I gather old botany manuals, family photographs and magazine images to build and present a particular and a magic visual universe. In this particular world, nature emerges as a metaphor for harmony, healing and transformation. This imaginary universe, simultaneously autobiographical, fictional, political and poetic, merges my personal memories, full of symbolism and religious syncretism with collective experiences and traumas. Through multi-layered , which simultaneously evoke fauna and flora, historical realities, collective aspirations and inner visions, sparks a important perception on the human relationship with nature and the living world at large.

David Elliott is a cultural and art historian, writer, curator and museum director primarily concerned with modern and contemporary art. Elliott was Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England from 1976-96, Director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden from 1996-2001, the founding Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan from 2001-06, the first Director of Istanbul Modern, Turkey in 2007 and from 2016-2019, Vice-Director and Senior Curator of the Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art in Guangzhou. From 1998-2004, he was President of CIMAM (the International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) and in 2008, the Rudolf Arnheim Guest Professor of Art History at Humboldt University, Berlin; from 2012 to 2017 he was a guest professor in curatorship at the Chinese University, Hong Kong. Since 2010. He has been the Artistic Director of biennales of contemporary art in Sydney, Kiev, Moscow and Belgrade and is currently working freelance as a writer and curator.

João Paulo Queiroz holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon, an MA in Communications from the University Institute of Lisbon, and a BA in Painting from the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes de Lisboa. He is a Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon, in the PhD courses in Art Education of the University of Porto, and PhD in Arts of the University of Seville, Spain. Queiroz acted as coordinator for the International Congress CSO annually from 2010 to 2022 and of the academic journals Studio, Gama, and Croma. From 2012 to 2022, he coordinated the Congress Raw Material, Practices of Visual Arts in Basic and Secondary Education annually. He currently serves as President of the Board of Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes (SNBA, National Society of Fine Arts). He has held several solo exhibitions and was awarded the Gustavo Cordeiro Ramos Painting Prize by the National Academy of Fine Arts in 2004.

Marvão has a Law degree from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a Masters in Arts Administration from New York University. She worked at the United Nations and at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and is the representative in Portugal and Spain of Phillips Auction House. Marvão coordinates a postgraduate course in Markets and Art Collections at Escola das Artes – UCP, is a member of the Advisory Board of Escola das Artes – Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Youth Foundation with responsibility for culture and founder of the Portuguese Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington.

Philippe Vergne has been serving as director of Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, since April 2019. He was director of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) from 2014 to 2018. Prior to his appointment at MOCA, Vergne served for five years as director of the Dia Art Foundation, New York. Before his tenure at the Dia Foundation, Vergne was Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. From 1994 to 1997, Vergne was Director of the MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Marseille, France.

Tim Marlow is Chief Executive and Director of the Design Museum in London.

Formerly Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Arts and Director of Exhibitions at White Cube, Marlow has been involved in the contemporary art world for the past thirty years as a curator, writer and broadcaster.  He has worked with many of the most important and influential artists of our time to deliver wide-ranging and popular programmes and brings a commitment to diverse and engaging exhibitions to his new role showcasing the transformational capability of design.

Marlow sits on the Board of Trustees for the Imperial War Museum, Art on the Underground Advisory Board and Cultureshock Media. Marlow was awarded an OBE in 2019.

Vicente Todolí was appointed artistic director of Hangar Bicocca (Pirelli Foundation) in May 2012 where he is responsible for the program. Vicente Todolí career in the visual arts spans more than 30 years and includes positions as Chief Curator (1986-88) and then artistic director of the IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art, 1988-1996), before joining the Museum of Contemporary Art Serralves as its founding director in 1996 until 2002. In 2002 he was appointed Director of the Tate Modern by the Trustees of the Tate, where he joined full-time in March 2003 and left in June 2010.