Ana Mendes

Ana Mendes is a visual artist and writer living and working in Stockholm and London, where she finished an MA in Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths College (2011). She also studied photography and conceptual art at Bauhaus University, Weimar, guest student (2012), video at Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden (2019) and animation film at La Poudriere, Valence, France (2008).

Mendes works in video, performance, photography, installation, drawing and sculpture. Most of her work resolves around questions of identity - her own identity or of other people around her.

Concept / idea is the most important part of her work. Her concepts / ideas are similar to dreams / imaginative intakes of reality, things that she perceives, conceives or aspire to be / happen. Composition is the second most important element - Mendes creates works in a very intuitive manner, combining logic and lemma science. Her works are open ended and created with economy of means. The visitor / viewer builds himself / herself he gaps left open in her works. Lately, she has been working most in installation, because of the freedom that this medium gives, allowing the artist to play with context, creating compositions where the visitor can enter into, bringing new interpretations. 

Since 2019, Mendes has worked regularly in East Asia (Japan, Taiwan and South Korea), exploring colonial legacies, philosophy and spirituality between the East and the West, namely Animism and Shintoism.

Her work is quite often described as poetic and minimalist.

Recent solo shows include: Gallery 54, Gothenburg (2024), Das Schaufenster, Seattle (2024), Monade Contemporary, Kyoto (2024, upcoming), Lewisham Art House, London (2023); Konstepidemin / GIBCA Extended 2021 (Gothenburg International Biennial Contemporary Art), Gothenburg, Sweden; Chelsea College, Telephone Gallery, London, UK, 2019; Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria; Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria, Akademie Schloss Solitude and Linden Museum Stuttgart, Germany (all 2017).

Group shows include: XVII Graphic Triennale Uppsala, 2024; Portuguese Sovereign Artist Award, Lisbon (2022), Royal Academy of Art, Summer Exhibition, 2021; Korean Gallery, Korean Cultural Centre, NY, USA; Taoyuan International Award, Taoyuan Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan; Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, Denmark (all 2021).

Mendes has been the recipient of numerous awards, including: Taoyuan International Award, Honourable Mention and Audience Choice Award, Taoyuan Museum of Fine Art, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 2021; Artist Revelation Award ADAGP/ MAD Days, finalist, Paris/France, 2019; Jerwood Drawing Prize, second prize winner, London, UK, 2017; Honorable Mention, Prize of the Jury, MAAT Museum/Fuso Festival, Lisbon, Portugal, 2016; MAC International Ulster Bank Prize, finalist, Belfast, UK, 2016; Prize of the Jury Sophiensaele, Festival 100 Grad, winner, Berlin, Germany, 2014; Act-Arriaga Prize, winner, Act Festival, Bilbao, Spain, 2012; Literary Award/ Dramaturgy, winner, City of Albufeira, Portugal, 2009; ‘This is not a competition’, co-winner, Artistas Unidos, Lisbon, Portugal, 2008. She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, namely: Akademie Schloss Solitude 2015/17, Stuttgart, Germany; IASPIS, Stockholm, Sweden, 2017, Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal, 2010/11.