“Sónia Almeida’s practice questions how audiences engage with art, knowledge, and the communication of the intangible. Her work is exquisite in execution and playful in presentation. It is thrilling to see Sónia continue to dissolve the boundaries between different forms of production and expression.” – juror Joseph Henry, Director of Cultural Planning, City of Boston, Office of Arts and Culture
“Sónia Almeida’s decades of exploring the formal, visual, and conceptual possibilities of the book in her paintings, prints, and expansive exhibitions have produced a stunning body of work unique in its experiential aesthetics.” – juror Ruth Erickson, Barbara Lee Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, ICA Boston.
Almeida is the 2025 Wagner Foundation Artadia Awardee.
Sónia Almeida is a Lisbon-born artist working in the Boston area, whose work operates within the realm of expanded painting. Often drawing from systems of communication to explore themes of misinterpretation and cultural fragmentation, Almeida explores how the medium of painting behaves under the digital conditions of a global economy.
Gradually, her work shifted from static objects to interactive works that invite touch, movement, and transformation. Her installations invite active participation, whether through intimate artist books, or large-scale kinetic installations, exploring the tension between resistance and action. Her work offers a space for physical engagement in a world that often discourages it—redefining the viewer as a participant in meaning-making.
Almeida received her MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and BFA from the University of Lisbon. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024 and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2015. Her work has been the subject of recent exhibitions at the Culturgest Foundation, Lisbon (2023); the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas, Portugal (2024); the Serralves Museum, Portugal (2024) and the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2024).
