Vasco Araújo was born in 1975 in Lisbon, the city where he continues to live and work.
He completed his first degree in Sculpture in 1999 at FBAUL (Lisbon University School of Fine Art), and attended the Advanced Course in Visual Arts at Maumaus in Lisbon, from 1999 to 2000. Since then, he has participated in various solo and group exhibitions both in Portugal and abroad, also taking part in residency programmes, such as The University of Arts, Philadelphia (2007); Récollets, Paris (2005); and the Core Program (2003/04), Houston. In 2003, he was awarded the EDP Prize for New Artists.
His most recent solo shows include: “A Moment Apart”, MAAT, Lisbon (2019); “Vasco Araújo”, M-Museum, Leuven, Belgium, (2018); “Decolonial desires”, Autograph ABP, London, (2016); “Potestad”, MALBA – Museu de Arte Latino-Americana de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (2015); “Under the Influence of Psyche”, The Power Plant, Toronto (2014); “Debret”, Pinacoteca do Estado de S. Paulo, S. Paulo (2013); “Avec les voix de l’autre”, Musée d’art de Joliette, Joliette (2011); “Mais que a vida”, Fundação C. Gulbenkian/ CAM, Lisboa and MARCO, Vigo (2010); “Eco”, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2008); “Vasco Araújo: Per-Versions”, the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston (2008); “About being Different”, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2007); “Pathos”, Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca (2006); “Dilemma”, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2005); “L’inceste”, Museu do Azulejo, Lisbon (2005); “The Girl of the Golden West”, The Suburban, Chicago (2005); “Dilema”, Museu de Serralves, Oporto (2004); “Sabine/Brunilde”, SNBA, Lisbon (2003).
His most recent group shows include: “Bienal del Bioceno – Cambiar el Verde por Azul » 15.ª Bienal de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador (2021); “Triangulo atlântico” Bienal Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2018); “All that Falls”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014); “Investigations of a Dog”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2009); “Everything has a name, or the potential to be named”, Gasworks, Londres (2009); “Em Vivo Contacto”, 28º Bienal de S. Paulo, São Paulo (2008); “Artes Mundi, Wales Internacional Visual Art Exhibition and Prize”, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff (2008); “Kara Walker and Vasco Araújo: Reconstruction”, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, (2007); “Drei Farben – Blau”, XIII Rohkunstbau, Grobleuthen (2006); “Experience of Art”, La Biennale di Venezia. 51st International Exhibition of Art, Venice; “Dialectics of Hope”, 1st Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art, Moscow, (both in 2005); Solo (For Two Voices), CCS, Bard College, New York (2002); “The World Maybe Fantastic” Sydney Biennial, Sydney (2002); Trans Sexual Express, Barcelona, a Classic for the Third Millennium, Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona (2001).
His work has been published in various books and catalogues and is represented in several public and private collections, such as at the Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne (France); Museu Colecção Berardo, Arte Moderna e Contamporânea, (Portugal); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal); Fundación Centro Ordóñez-Falcón de Fotografía – COFF (Spain); Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Centro de Arte (Spain); Fundação de Serralves (Portugal); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (USA); Pinacoteca do estado S. Paulo (Brazil).