Joana Galego makes figurative painting and works on paper, rooted in drawing and built from memory rather than events. In her own words, the work is informed by memories and feelings rather than actual occurrences. Her compositions place figures, adult and childlike, hiding, embracing, resting and playing in dreamlike scenarios where a sense of stillness prevails. She works in mixed media, using pastel, pencil, acrylic, oil and charcoal, and layers and collages the surface to build texture and to hold several narratives within a single composition, at a scale that runs from the intimate portrait to the grand tableau. Her recurring subjects are memory and isolation, connection, love and its absence, vulnerability and miscommunication. Her stated interest is in work that asks questions rather than makes statements.
Drawing is the foundation of everything she makes. Working from both memory and observation, she uses layering and collage to evoke how memory keeps some things and lets others go, holding the observed and the imagined in a single frame.
She studied Painting at the University of Lisbon and completed The Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School on a full scholarship. On graduating she received the School’s Sir Denis Mahon Award, given to one outgoing student each year and carrying a solo exhibition. Her work has since been shown in solo exhibitions in London, Lisbon and New York, most recently at Isabel Sullivan Gallery, New York, and Galeria Belard, Lisbon, and in group exhibitions at the British Museum and Christie’s. Her paintings are held in private collections in the United Kingdom, the United States, Portugal, Italy and Germany.
Joana Galego
Galego (b. 1994, Cascais) lives and works in London. BA Fine Art, University of Lisbon; The Drawing Year, Royal Drawing School (full scholarship). Recipient of the Sir Denis Mahon Award.
Curriculum Vitae ·
current as at 29 July 2026
Education
2016 to 2017 The Drawing Year, MA-level postgraduate course, Royal Drawing School, London, UK
2012 to 2016 Painting BA, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Solo Shows
2026 Different Ways of Staying, Soho Revue, London
2026 To Climb the Night and Find, EY Projects, Shanghai
2026 Os Dias Mais Curtos, Galeria Belard, Lisbon
2025 Flawed Telepathies, Tube Culture Hall Booth, Milan
2025 Hiding Behind Gifts, Oliver Projects, London
2025 Seashells in My Mother’s Garden and the Giant Boulder Rolling Down, Isabel Sullivan Gallery, New York, USA
2024 jardins, Galeria Belard, Lisbon, Portugal
2023 Mole, Lunar, Sinal, Soho Revue, London, UK
2019 spring and all, The Sir Denis Mahon Award Show, Royal Drawing School, London, UK
2016 o lugar indeciso, Museu das Artes de Sintra, Portugal
Selected Two Person and Group Shows
2026 Say When…, Soho Revue, London
2026 Between Us, Soho Revue and Binder of Women, London
2026 Table Manners, Barbati Gallery, Venice, Italy
2025 Monotypes, Messums, London
2024 I Was Carefree, Green, and Golden, Isabel Sullivan Gallery, New York, USA
2024 A Hand is Not a Cage, Soho Revue, London
2023 Power Play, Oliver Projects, London
2022 There’s a Real World Outside, AHWNN Gallery, Ostend, Belgium
2022 Aleph Contemporary Booth, London Art Fair
2022 Out of Nowhere, Soho Revue, London
2021 This is Where We Meet, Carousel, London
2021 What I See I Will Never Tell, Wilder Gallery, London
2021 Silhouettes and Vignettes, Crownpoint Space, Glasgow
2020 Reflections, Aleph Contemporary (online)
2019 A High Hang, Eccleston Project Space, London
2019 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2019, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London
2019 Summer two person show, Serena Morton Gallery, London
2019 estoutro, Espaço Cultural das Mercês, Lisbon
2018 The Sir Denis Mahon Award at the Royal Drawing School, British Museum, London
2018 Downsizing, Cave Space, London
2017 The Best of the Drawing Year, Christie’s, London
2016 40 graus à sombra, Casa das Artes Mário Elias, Mértola, Portugal
2016 Spring Salon / Queen Isabel de Bragança Prize, Casino Estoril, Lisbon, Portugal
2016 Chiado, Carmo, metrópolis e u-topia, Lisbon, Portugal; Vitória, Brazil; and Paris, France
Artistic Residencies
2025 Monte da Japónica, Redondo, Portugal
2024 Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy
2023 Biennial Jatim X, East Java, Indonesia
2021 Dumfries House, Scotland
2017 The Drawing Marathon, in partnership with the Royal Drawing School, RISD, Providence, USA
2016 RÉSVÉS, Mértola, Portugal
2015 RÉSVÉS, Alte, Portugal
Awards and Bursaries
2019 Shortlisted, Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize
2017 The Sir Denis Mahon Award, Royal Drawing School
2017 The Drawing Marathon at RISD Residency Award
2016 Full Scholarship, The Drawing Year, Royal Drawing School, London
2016 Shortlisted, Queen Isabel de Bragança Prize, Casino Estoril, Lisbon, Portugal
2016 Shortlisted, 1st Paula Rego Award, Lisbon, Portugal
2015 Honourable Mention, Casa das Artes de Tavira’s 30 Years, Tavira, Portugal