Valeska Soares
-
Biography
Valeska Soares (b.1957) was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and from a young age, she was exposed to references from a variety of cultural milieus, including poetry, literature, film, psychology, and mythology. She studied architecture at Universidade Santa Úrsula, Rio de Janeiro; this training reinforced an interest in site specificity, with artworks that consider both contextual history and spatial constructs. The Brazilian art scene in the late-1980s and early 1990s catalyzed Soares’s artistic career in Rio and São Paulo, and in 1992, she moved to Brooklyn, NY, continuing her artistic education and career. From New York, throughout the 1990s and 2000s, her work has been positioned in multiple platforms, reinforcing the globalized art world’s questions of geography, cultural and national identity, discipline, and form.
Valeska Soares (b.1957) was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and from a young age, she was exposed to references from a variety of cultural milieus, including poetry, literature, film, psychology, and mythology. She studied architecture at Universidade Santa Úrsula, Rio de Janiero; this training reinforced an interest in site specificity, with artworks that consider both contextual history and spatial constructs. The Brazilian art scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s catalyzed Soares’s artistic career in Rio and São Paulo, and in 1992, she moved to Brooklyn, NY, continuing her artistic education and career. From New York, throughout the 1990s and 2000s, her work has been positioned in multiple platforms, reinforcing the globalized art world’s questions of geography, cultural and national identity, discipline, and form.
Soares’s bodies of work are linked thematically, but deploy diverse strategies to address issues and concerns through materials, forms, and experiences. Utilizing tools of minimalism and conceptualism, her work embraces emotion and humanity, mining territories of love, intimacy, and desire; loss and longing; and memory and language. She has explored these elusive themes through a myriad of tactics, infusing objects such as mirrors, clocks, glass, books, furniture, and flora with poetics, narratives, and alchemy. The resulting artworks—paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, and audio experiences—morph the physical and the psychological, the body and the mind. In Soares’s refined visual language, reflective objects suggest reflective thinking, concealed images reveal unexpected mysteries, and accumulated words disintegrate linear narrative.
Desire is a central theme in Soares’s practice, enticing viewers though an engagement with all five senses. Her installations have included perfume, decaying flowers, or spirits; these works result in phenomenological experiences that shift perception and expectations. In her words, “desire is like a vanishing point: every time you go towards it, it recedes a little.” Another motif in her work is the transference of personal memory and collective history; the artist frequently re-purposes second hand objects that she considers charged by “the lives and memories [of former owners], becoming for a moment in time, part of those personal narratives as each one travels from subject to subject.” Canvases made of book covers convene and re-orient individual narratives; collections of empty antique cake platters or half-filled drinking glasses suggest rituals or celebrations that have been suspended in time. Soares’s art encourages the widest possible viewer experience, rejecting the idea of a singular reading or message. Describing this interest in unrestricted opportunities for engagement, she states, “what interests me is the surprise in how each person is going to perceive the piece. And even the same person, on different days—depending on the sun and the moon, a dream they had, how they woke up—the work is never the same.”
In 2018, a retrospective of Valeska Soares’s work was on view at The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil. Her work was the subject of the major mid-career survey, Any Moment Now, at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA (2017), followed by the Phoenix Art Museum, AZ (2018). Previous surveys of the artist’s work have been presented by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY (both 2003); and Museu de arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2002).
Other solo exhibitions include those presented at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (2017); The Jewish Museum, New York (2015); Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2002); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA (1999); Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, OR (1998); Laumeier Sculpture Park and Museum, Saint Louis, MO (1996); and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (1995). Soares has participated in the Lyon Bienniale (2022) and numerous other international exhibitions, including two Venice Biennales (2011, 2005); several São Paulo Biennials (2009, 1998, 1994); the Sharjah Biennial (2009); the Taipei Biennial (2006); the Liverpool Biennial (2004); inSITE San Diego/Tijuana (2000–01); and the Havana Biennial (1991).
Soares’s artwork is included in many private and public collections, including The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum d’Art Contemporary de Barcelona, Spain; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN; Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York, NY; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Fundacion “la Caixa,” Barcelona, Spain; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Museu de Arte Contemporânea–MAC in São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna–MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Inhotim–Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Brazil; Museo de Art Contemporáneo–MARCO, Monterrey, Mexico, and others. Soares has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including the Coordenao de Aperfeioamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) fellowship, Brazil's Ministry of Education; Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, The Getty Foundation, Los Angeles; Ida Ely Rubin Artist in Residence Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Anonymous Was a Woman Award, New York; and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, New York.
Valeska Soares is also represented by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil.
-
Public Collections
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C.
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, TX
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY
Burger Collection, Zürich, Switzerland
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA
Centro Galego de Arte Contemporânea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Daros Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland
Fundação Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil
Fundación “la Caixa,” Barcelona, Spain
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil
JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, New York, NY
Laumeier Sculpture Park, Saint Louis, MO
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
MINT Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Museu Arte de Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain
Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil
Museu Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporâneo, Badajoz, Spain
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village, OH
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Tate, London, United Kingdom -
Exhibitions
-
To Name a Place: Contemporary Landscape
23 Jun - 5 Aug 2022 New YorkParticipating artists: Miya Ando Luis Camnitzer Mel Chin Justine Fisher Coco Fusco Valeska Soares Ryan Trecartin Arnie Zimmerman Alexander Gray Associates presents To Name a Place: Contemporary Landscape, a group...Read more -
Valeska Soares
Broken Year 13 Jan - 26 Feb 2022 New YorkAlexander Gray Associates presented Broken Year, Valeska Soares’s third one-person presentation with the Gallery. Conceived as a calendar that marks the artist’s experience of the passage of time, Broken Year...Read more -
Valeska Soares
Acqua Alta 8 Oct - 28 Nov 2021 Germantown -
South South
26 Feb - 11 Apr 2021 Germantown -
Between the Lines
11 Sep - 17 Oct 2020 New YorkAlexander Gray Associates, New York presented Between the Lines, a group exhibition of recent and historic sculptures and works on paper by Luis Camnitzer, Jennie C. Jones, Hassan Sharif, Valeska...Read more -
Valeska Soares
Ouroboros 2 - 25 Aug 2019 Germantown -
Valeska Soares
Neither Here Nor There 1 Nov - 16 Dec 2017 New York -
Time Has No Shadows
Jewish Museum 6 Nov 2015 - 22 Apr 2016 -
Push Pull
CIFO Art Space 1 Jan 2013 -
28th Bienal de São Paulo
26 Oct - 6 Dec 2009 -
(Shushhhhhh………) Prelude
Sharjah Art Foundation 19 Mar - 16 May 2009 -
Folly
Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea 1 Jan 2009 -
51st Venice Biennale
Always a Little Further 12 Jun - 6 Nov 2005 -
Puro Teatro
Museo Rufino Tamayo 1 Jan 2002
-
-
Other Exhibitions
-
RAYUELA / El Orden Falso. Comisariada por Octavio Zaya
Galeria Marlborough Madrid, Spain 14 September - 18 November 2023 -
Lyon Biennale
14 September - 31 December 2022 -
Understudies: I, Myself Will Exhibit Nothing
KW Institute for Contemporary Art 14 April 2022 -
Glasstress Boca Raton 2021
Boca Raton Museum of Art 27 January - 5 September 2021 -
The Enchanted Interior
Laing Art Gallery 19 October 2019 - 22 February 2020 -
Glasstress
Fondazione Berengo 23 March 2019 -
Words/Matter: Latin American Art and Language at the Blanton
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin 17 February - 26 May 2019 -
Valeska Soares: Entrementes
Pinacoteca de São Paulo 4 August - 22 October 2018 -
Valeska Soares: Any Moment Now
Phoenix Art Museum 24 March - 18 July 2018 -
Valeska Soares: Any Moment Now
Santa Barbara Museum of Art 17 September - 31 December 2017 -
Matrix 176, Unfold
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art 2 February - 7 May 2017 -
Brasil/Beleza?!
Museum Beelden aan Zee 26 May - 2 October 2016 -
Time Has No Shadows
Jewish Museum 6 November 2015 - 22 April 2016 -
Permission To Be Global/Prácticas Globales
CIFO Art Space 4 December 2013 - 23 February 2014 Other Exhibitions -
Push Pull
CIFO Art Space 1 January 2013 -
28th Bienal de São Paulo
26 October - 6 December 2009 -
(Shushhhhhh………) Prelude
Sharjah Art Foundation 19 March - 16 May 2009 -
Folly
Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea 1 January 2009 -
51st Venice Biennale
Always a Little Further 12 June - 6 November 2005 -
Puro Teatro
Museo Rufino Tamayo 1 January 2002
-
-
News / Events
-
Luis Camnitzer and Valeska Soares
Galeria Marlborough Madrid September 14, 2023Luis Camnitzer and Valeska Soares are included in a group exhibition, RAYUELA / El Orden Falso. Comisariada por Octavio Zaya at Galeria Marlborough Madrid, Spain.
-
Valeska Soares
Dallas Museum of Art September 18, 2022Valeska Soares included in the group exhibition Movement: The Legacy of Kineticism at the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, TX.
-
Valeska Soares
Lyon Biennale September 14, 2022Valeska Soares is among the participating artists in the 2022 Lyon Biennale: manifesto of fragility.
-
-
Articles / Reviews