Artist in RESIDENCE: João Alves
During the Sarah Kravitz Residency Programme, Portuguese artist João Alves (b. 1983, Porto) developed a body of work informed by both historical reference and contemporary social critique.
Alves is a contemporary painter whose practice employs a symbolic and often moralistic visual language rooted in narrative and allegory. Influenced by artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and James Ensor, his work presents a surreal and parodic examination of human behaviour, blending historical iconography with contemporary relevance.
Trained in Fine Arts at the University of Porto, Alves moved away from academic formalism early in his career, developing a deliberately “primitive” approach that embraces intuition and playfulness. His multidisciplinary practice spans painting, mural work, and film, with exhibitions and projects across Europe, including presentations connected to the Cannes Film Festival and Documenta. His work is held in private collections across Europe.
Portuguese artist João Alves’s recent works take inspiration from an enigmatic series of blue and white tile panels housed in the Palace of Mangualde in Viseu, Portugal. Created by Master Sousa Carvalho and titled The World Upside Down, these uncanny scenes turn rural, household life on its head — a woman returns from the hunt to find her husband nursing their baby, while a donkey walks upon its hind legs, leading its load-bearing owner home for the night.
Intriguing to the artist due to the social critique laced within their content, Alves has reinterpreted these 18th-century panels in paint as a route to illuminating and undermining the societal conventions that still dictate and mediate our behaviour in the present.
