Deolinda Fonseca

Deolinda Fonseca (b. 1954, Porto, Portugal) has lived and worked in Denmark since 1979.

She graduated in Fine Arts from the School of Fine Arts of Porto in 1979 and pursued supplementary studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1985. Throughout her career, she has received grants from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Bikuben, Nithona Fonden and Otto Baches Legat.

Fonseca has held numerous solo exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, including No Reino das Aparições at São Mamede Gallery, Lisbon (2014), Paisagens da Mente at São Mamede Gallery, Lisbon (2010), Flutuações at the Portuguese Cultural Centre of the Camões Institute, Luxembourg (2009), Mind’s Eye at Gallery Shorashim, Israel (2009), Sincronismo do Olhar at São Mamede Gallery, Porto (2007), Topologia Cromática at São Mamede Gallery, Lisbon (2006), Memória - 25 de Abril at the Portuguese Cultural Centre of the Camões Institute, Luxembourg (2002), and Pintura Sobre Seda at the António Carneiro House-Museum, Porto Capital of Culture programme (2001).

She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including exhibitions at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the University of Porto, Art Madrid, Arte Lisboa, the Vila Nova de Cerveira Biennial, Gallery Copenhagen, the Casino Estoril Gallery, and the international Art Comet project, presented in museums and cultural institutions in Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Poland, Finland and the Czech Republic.

In addition to her exhibition activity, Fonseca has carried out mural and decorative projects, including commissions for Avedøre Church (2012), the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel in Copenhagen (2012), the Central Library of Copenhagen (1996) and Baunegaarden Kindergarten (1997). She has also undertaken live painting performances at institutions including the National Museum of Denmark, Scandinavian Airlines and Rundetaarn, Copenhagen.

Between 1997 and 2005, she was Director of Galleri Fonseca in Copenhagen. She has also worked on film-related projects, including scenographic drawings for Tortura (1991), directed by Astrid Henning-Jensen, and scenographic sculptures for Exit Non Stop (1998), directed by Lars Brok.

In 2002, she was awarded the rank of Commander of the Order of Prince Henry by the President of the Portuguese Republic.

Her work has been the subject of several publications, including Paisagens da Mente, Representação e Abstração (2010), with texts by Laura Castro and Sinne Lundgaard Rasmussen, as well as exhibition catalogues published in Portugal and Luxembourg.

Deolinda Fonseca’s work is represented in the collections of the Nithona Foundation at Rønnebæksholm, Avedøre Church, the Portuguese Embassies in Denmark, Israel and Luxembourg, the Camões Institute in Luxembourg, and in private collections in Sweden, the United States, Spain, Luxembourg, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Portugal.