SUSANA
ROCHA
BRIEF BIO
Susana Rocha
Born in Braga, Based in Lisbon.
Susana Rocha graduated in Painting by Fine Arts Faculty, University of Lisbon (2010) and has a Master in Painting (2012) by the same University. Has Master in Teaching - Visual Arts by the Education Institute of the University of Lisbon (2013) and a PhD in Visual Arts (2020) by the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Lisbon.
She is the founder and Artistic Director of DUPLEX, where she develops curatorial projects, directs and produces the programming of DUPLEX gallery and the International Residency Program.
She was the recipient of several prizes and grants, namely the Acquisition Prize by the Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson (ES) in ARCO Lisboa 2022, a Prodution Grant by the Supersonic Online Residency (funded by Lisbon’s Municipality, PT), selected as Emergent Portuguese Artist selected by EMERGE awarded a funded Studio at Palácio dos Coruchéus by Lisbon’s Municipality (2019/2023), awarded an Individual PhD Grant by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (2016/2020), a Residency Grant by Galeria Largo das Artes/Despina, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and won the “Prémio Jovens Criadores: Artes Plásticas”, Clube Português Artes e Ideias.
Her work is represented in several collections from which stand out Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson (ES), Colección Kells (ES), Colección Los Bragales (ES), Colección Zarur (MX), Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes (PT).
Susana Rocha's practice develops around tensions, which are explored through a multiplicity of materials embedded with metaphorical potential, which often evoke an implicit relation with a suggested body.
This fetishization of the materials - fragmented, rearranged, appropriated, perforated, manipulated and sculpturally reaffirmed - is assumed as a consideration of oneself and the other, enclosing a latency that is undoubtedly physical, but above all psycho-emotional.
Translating a transitory sense of life, where the experience of mourning and the absurd have a strong presence, and often appealing to the phenomenon of suggestion to embody absence, limitation, confrontation, discomfort and failure, the artist develops her projects based on personal experiences, whose narrative is almost never evidently biographical, seeking a universalizing sense of the struggles and mainly the tensions of human condition.
Nonetheless, some central biographical aspects seem to inform the artist's work: the fact that she was the daughter of two doctors and grew up surrounded by the visual, technical and ethical aspects of that profession; her coming of age after rebellious teenager years; her insomnias; the deep feeling of grief at the abrupt loss of her mother combined with the fact that she is a mother herself.... all topics that, although don’t require concrete narrative discourse, for sure engage with her visual vocabulary.
CV
Susana Rocha
Braga, 1988. Lives and works in Lisbon.
Founder and Artistic Director of DUPLEX.
EDUCATION
2020 – PhD in Fine Arts – Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon
2013 – Master's Degree in Teaching – Visual Arts, by the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon.
2012 – Master's Degree in Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon
2010 - Degree in Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2021 – Production Grant, Supersonic Residência Online – financed by CML, organized by Atelier Concorde
2020 – Emerging Portuguese Artist selected by EMERGE
2019/2023 – Attribution of Municipal Studio – Palácio dos Coruchéus of CML
2015/2019 – Individual Doctoral Grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)
2013 – Scholarship to attend Artistic Residency – Largo das Artes Gallery/Despina, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
2012 – Winner - “Young Creators Award: Plastic Arts”, Clube Português Artes e Ideias
2010 – Honorable Mention – Plastic Arts Contest “Oriente/Ocidente – Miscegenações”, CIEBA/FBAUL
INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS
2024 - "The Party is Over" Duplex (Lisbon, Portugal)
2023 - "Leaking Bodies" Galeria Plato (Évora, Portugal) cur. Diogo Ramalho
2024 - "Against Myself" Duplex (Lisbon, Portugal)
2023 - "The Body is Absent but not the Desire" ATM Gallery (Gijón, Spain)
2023 - "Pillow Talk" - Viewing. Galeria del Paseo (Punta del Este, Uruguay)
2023 - "MOM they made you a garden but it cannot be watered" DUPLEX (Lisbon, Portugal)
2022 - "Parallax" Nacional Society of Fine Arts (Lisbon, Portugal)
2022 - "(IN)TENSION" Galeria Nave (Lisbon, Portugal)
2021 - "Too Much Light in the Dark" Galeria Nave (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. by Mercedes Cerón
2021 – “A Loss of Purpose” Duplex (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. by Eugenia Griffero
2020 – “Bound to Fail” FBAUL (Lisbon, Portugal)
2017 – “Such an Orange Anxiety” Mercês Cultural Space (Lisbon, Portugal)
2014 – “Mother Nature is a Bitch” Palácio Camões (Lisbon, Portugal)
2013 – “Frostbite” Listhús Gallery (Ólafsfirð, Iceland)
2013 – “Heat Stroke” Largo das Artes Gallery (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
2013 – “Et in Arcadia Ego” Casa dos Crivos (Braga, Portugal)
2012 – “A Clash of Drives” FBAUL (Lisbon, Portugal)
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2025 - "Bico" Appelton Box (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. Mercedes Vidal Abarca and Jorge de la Cruz
2025 - "Abracadabra" Plato (Porto, Portugal) cur. Diogo Ramalho
2024 - "Algo que Brilla" Bothanical Garden Foundación Sales (Vigo, Spain), cur Sandra MG
2024 - "I'm NOBODY" DUPLEX (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. Lemos + Lehmann
2023 - "Taking the Light Out of the Prism" AOGFE / DUPLEX (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. Susana Rocha
2023 - "Entrearte III" Revillagigedo Palace (Gijón, Spain)
2023 - "Gémeos Falsos" Appleton Square (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. by Diogo Ramalho and Mercedes Vidal
2023 - "Impromptu" DUPLEX (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. by Duplex
2023 - "Wanderlust" Artes | Mota Galiza (Porto, Portugal) cur. by Mercedes Cerón
2023 - "Painful Tenderness" Hinterconti (Hamburg, Germany) cur. by Judith Hofer
2022 - "(0/1) O zero e o um" Museu Nacional de História Natural e Ciência (Lisboa, Portugal)
2022 - "Interstícios" DUPLEX (Lisboa, Portugal) cur. Francisco Correia
2022 - "From the Affirmation to the Current Balance", Cerveira Bienal (Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal)
2022 - "Present Tense", Lage Egal (Berlin, Germany) cur. by Pierre Granoux
2021 - "Sine Qua Non", Galeria Nave (Lisbon, Portugal)
2021 - "The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back", SWAB (Barcelona, Spain) cur. by Duplex
2020 – “I Will Take the Risk” Azan (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. by Tomás Hipólito and Beatriz José
2020 – “Let Us Flop” DUPLEX (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. Susana Rocha
2017 – “Occupied House” (Lisbon, Portugal) cur. Francisca Aires Mateus
2017 – “It's Liquid Group Show” The Room (Venice, Italy)
2014 – “The Chiado of Dramaturgy and Performance: Art in the Public Sphere”, Archaeological Museum of Carmo (Lisbon, Portugal)
2013 – “Landscape Dimension”, Listhús Gallery (Ólafsfjördur, Iceland)
2013 – “Arte Jovem 2013”, Paço Gallery (Torres Vedras, Portugal)
2013 – “ArtRio 2013”, Largo das Artes Gallery. “Die a Little” Performance (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
2013 – “6x6” Rochester Contemporary Art Center (New York, USA)
2013 – “L'air du Chiado a Paris”, André de Gouveia Residence - Foundation
Gulbenkian (Paris, France)
2012 – “Show Young Creators” Cascais Market (Cascais, Portugal)
2011 – “Nothing in Common” Banco de Portugal Building (Leiria, Portugal)
RESIDENCES
2023 - BONFIRE Residency Program, Online (www.bonfire-air.com)
2022 - ATM Residency Program, Gijón (Spain)
2021 – Supersonic – Online Residence, Financed by the Social Emergency Fund of CML, organized by Atelier Concorde, Lisbon (Portugal)
2013 – Largo das Artes/Despina International Residency Programme, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
2013 – Listhús í Fjallabyggð Artist Residency, Ólafsfirð (Iceland)
OTHER PROJECTS
2021 – Lisbon Art Weekend: Open Studios | DUPLEX
2020 – Lisbon Art Weekend: Open Studios | DUPLEX
2020 – Artistic project for editorial of Revista DOSE Nº5, curated by Maria von. Hafe, Mariana Rebola and Margarida Oliveira. Launch at Balcony Gallery.
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2023 - "Taking the Light Out of the Prism" Oficinas Gerais de Fardamento e Equipamento do
Exército (Lisbon, Portugal)
Group Exhibition: Alex Wolkowicz | Allan Gandhi | Alves Ludovico | Anastasia Carpio |
Bárbara Bulhão | Bruno José Silva | Caoimhe Rogan | Catarina Moura | Daniel Moraes |
Daniela Ângelo | David Martinez Suarez | Diana Cerezino | Fábio Colaço | Fernando
Moletta | Francisco Correia | Francisco Trêpa | Gabriel Ribeiro| Gil Ferrão | Hugo Brazão |
Hugo Cantegrel | Heron P. Nogueira | Inês Brites | Inês Teles | Joana Siquenique | Juan
Crespo | Juliana Matsumura | Lisette van Hoogenhuyze | Lulu Wolf | MOM |
Mané Pacheco | Manuel Tainha | Maria Máximo | Mathilde Bjerre | Monica Mindelis |
Nathalie Mei | Natalie Feldsman | Paula Koenig | Pedro Cabrita Paiva | Pedro Moreira |
Primeira Desordem | Salomé Lopes | Sara Mealha | Sheila Cañestro | Silke Weissbach |
Sofia Mascate | Susana Amaral | Susana Rocha| Tânia Geiroto Marcelino | Theodore
Ereira-Guyer | Tiago Baptista
2021 - "The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back" (co-authorship) SWAB (Barcelona, Spain)
Group Exhibition: Beatriz Coelho, Francisco Trêpa, Gabriel Ribeiro, Susana Rocha
2021 – “Something Has Got to Give” DUPLEX (Lisbon, Portugal)
Group Exhibition: Beatriz Coelho, Diana Cerezino, Francisco Correia, Joana
Siquenique, Juan Crespo, Ricardo Sousa, Rita Pequeno, Sebastião Castelo Lopes.
2020 – “Let Us Floop” DUPLEX (Lisbon, Portugal)
Group Exhibition: Ana Battaglia Abreu, Bárbara Bulhão, Diego Machargo, Francisco Trêpa, Gabriel Ribeiro, Gil Ferrão, Hugo Brazão, Inês Teles, Manuel Tainha, Rui Castanho, Susana Rocha, Tânia Geiroto Marcelino.
ART FAIRS
2024 - Artissima | ATM Galeria (Turin, Italy) - Duo project w/ David Martinez Suarez
2023 - SWAB Barcelona | ATM Galeria (Barcelona, Spain)
2023 - ARCO Lisboa | ATM Galeria (Lisboa, Portugal)
2023 - ARCO Madrid | ATM Galeria (Madrid, Portugal) - Duo project w/ Sahatsa Jauregui
2022 - ArteSantander | Galeria Nave (Santander, Espanha) - Solo project
2022 - Arco Lisboa | ATM Galeria (Lisbon, Portugal) - Duo Project w/ Ixone Sadaba
2021 - FIG Bilbao | Galeria Nave (Bilbao, Spain)
2021 - SWAB Barcelona | DUPLEX (Barcelona, Spain)
COLLECTIONS
Private collections in PT, ES, FR, IS e BR.
Public Collections:
- Colección Kells (ES)
- Colección Los Bragales (ES)
- Colección Zarur (MX)
- Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson (ES)
- Nacional Society of Fine Arts (PT)
PRESS
REIS, João - "A nossa necessidade de tensão é possível de aliviar" in Jornal S/Título Nº3. Lisboa: S/Título, 2022.
RANERA, Ana - "Éxito de Susana Rocha en ARCO Lisboa con ATM" in EL COMERCIO, 2022.
AMBRÓSIO, Daniela - “Portuguese Emerging Art 2019”. Lisbon: Emerge, 2019. ISBN: 978-989-20-9994-1
AA.VV. – “Young Creators 2012”. Lisbon: IPDJ, 2012. ISBN: 978-989-8266-06-04
BOTELHO, Manuel; ROCHA, Susana – “Painting Finalists 2009/10”. Lisbon: Faculty of Fine Arts of University of Lisbon, 2011. ISBN: 978-989-8300-16-04
DUPLEX – “Interview: Susana Rocha by Francisca Aires Mateus”. Interview Cycle, Duplex. 2021.
https://www.duplexair.com/post/entrevista-susana-rocha-por-francisca-aires-mateus
SABINO, Isabel – “Master's Theses in Painting 2010/12”. Lisbon: Faculty of Fine Arts of University of Lisbon, 2011. ISBN: 978-989-8300-44-7