virginia de medeiros

Virginia de Medeiros (b. 1973, Feira de Santana, Brazil) uses investigative processes to transgress hegemonic narratives as a means of giving voice and visibility to neglected, or marginalized histories. In order to do so, Medeiros employs methodologies that are common to both, art and documentary work, including displacement, participation and fabulation. 

In her work, Medeiros does not seek to capture or represent the Other but rather depicts punctual aspects of certain individuals, in order for their condition to become axiomatic. The artist has often employed photography and video to represent and showcase identities and existences that have historically been omitted, such as that of transgenders, transsexuals, women or the homeless. Her work emerges from an intense immersive process, where she familiarises herself and co-exists with her research subject in an attempt to free herself from an ethnographic approach, annulling possible underlying layers of prejudice, and allowing instead for intimacy and organic narratives to emerge.

Virginia de Medeiros lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Recent solo exhibitions include: Clamor, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake (ITO), in São Paulo, Brazil; 29^th Programa de exposições, at Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP) (2019), in São Paulo, Brazil; Alma de bronze, at Ocupação Nove de Julho (2018), in São Paulo, Brazil; Studio Butterfly e outras fábulas, at Galeria Fayga Ostrower, Complexo Cultural Funarte (2018), in Brasília, Brazil. She has featured in biennials as: 11th Belin Biennial, Germany (2020); Jogja Biennale 14, Indonésia (2017); 27^th and 31^th Bienal de São Paulo, Brasil (2006 e 2014). Recent group shows include: Ao que vai nascer, at Nara Roesler (2022), São Paulo, Brazil; À Nordeste, at Sesc 24 de Maio (2019), in São Paulo, Brazil; Love and Ethnology. The Colonial Dialectic of Sensitivity (after Hubert Fichte), at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) (2019), in Berlin, Germany; Arte Democracia Utopia – Quem não luta tá morto, at Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) (2018), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Forms of Resistance, at Golden Thread Gallery (2017), in London, UK, and Histórias da sexualidade, at Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) (2017), in São Paulo, Brazil. Her works are included in the collections of: Associação Cultural Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil; Centro Cultural Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura, Fortaleza, Brazil; Instituto de Arte Contemporânea de Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.