Carlos Bunga was born in 1976 in Porto. He studied at the Escola Superior de Arte e Design in Caldas da Rainha and he currently lives and works near Barcelona.
Bunga is known for his poetic and radical exploration of the polymorphic materiality of art. As such, in Bunga’s work, matter can take the form of shelter, model, performative field, support for mapping, prototype, imprint, mark, remnant, ruin, or larvae. His mastery of diverse media underpins a nomadic practice driven by a fascination with potential forms. The ambiguity of his architectural sculptures and his paintings on cardboard and tapestries situates much of his work between what has been and what could be: past and future, ruin and prototype, absence and utopia.
Since the outset of his career, Bunga has engaged with architecture and performance, as well as the notions of home and domesticity. For him, architecture is a framework for relationships–between individuals, their subjectivities, memories, emotions, and time. Equally central to his practice is the use of transient, ephemeral materials which he frequently employs in installations that create hybrid, mutable spaces, open to transformation.
He has been presenting solo exhibitions since 2002, such as: Inhabit the Contradiction, CAM Fundação Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2025); Against the Extravagance of Desire, Palacio de Cristal, MNCARS, Madrid (2022); Mind Awake, Body Asleep, Secession, Wien (2021); Something Necessary and Useful, Whitechapel, London (2020); I am a Nomad, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2015); Hammer Projects: Carlos Bunga, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, such as: 35 Bienal de São Paulo. Coreografias do Impossível, São Paulo, Brazil (2023) or Architecture Chicago Biennial, Chicago (2015). He is also part of important institutional collections of MoMA (New York, USA); Perez Art Museum (Miami, USA); Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brasil or Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona - MACBA (Barcelona).