José Carlos Teixeira

Born in Porto, Portugal, in 1977, José Carlos Teixeira is a visual artist and researcher.

As a Fulbright scholar, he completed his MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio, at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), in 2006, after having previously studied at New York University (NYU), and the University of Basque Country (UPV), in Bilbao. He holds a BFA degree from the School of Fine Arts at the University of Porto (FBAUP), 2001.

His interdisciplinary and research-based work involves primarily video-essay, photography, installation, text, and performance. It explores and expands on notions of identity, otherness, language, boundary, exile and displacement. Through strategies of participation, his pieces address specific issues related to locational identity, global diaspora, and the limits (or overlapping) of personal/social, physical/mental, and political territories. They attempt to generate not a set of conclusions, but a continuous process of questioning. Teixeira focuses mainly on participatory and collaborative events, therefore incorporating multiple voices and subjects into his audiovisual projects.

Teixeira has been involved in various projects, exhibitions, festivals, and screenings both in Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, UK, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Lithuania, and Cyprus), and in the USA (New York, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, Tucson, Madison), as well as in Singapore, China, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, and Cape Verde.

His work has been shown in venues such as the Hammer Museum, LACE (Los Angeles); Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena); Art Interactive (Boston); Museum of the City of New York, Residency Unlimited (New York); MMOCA (Madison); Spaces (Cleveland); Le Grand Halle de La Villete (Paris); Württembergischer Kunstverein, Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart); Rosalux, Berlinerpool, DAZ (Berlin); National Center for Contemporary Arts (Moscow); M. K. Ciurlionis National Museum, Galerija Meno Parkas (Kaunas); Hélio Oiticica Art Center (Rio de Janeiro); São Paulo Cultural Center (S. Paulo); Casa Garden/Oriente Foundation (Macao); Museu FBAUP, Museu Soares dos Reis, Galeria Presença (Porto); Museu da Cidade, Fundação EDP, Fundação Carmona e Costa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Goethe-Institut, and Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa (Lisbon); to name a few. His artwork is represented in art collections such as the Aberdeen Art Gallery Collection, UK; the EDP Foundation and the PLMJ Foundation Collections, Portugal.