About

About Me
Joana P. R. Neves
I launched Exhibitionistas to bring art into wider spaces of conversation. Art is life, and life, at times, can be art. It's funny how simple expressions can be so wise: "life imitating art" is a little nugget of complexity. It shows how interwoven life and art are, but also how dynamic their kinship is. Art is so present in our environment that we overlook it. But imagine your interior painted completely black. Your mood would be irreversibly affected. Nothing to do but to change the colour of the walls. Now extend this to all the amazing images that surround you–the sculptures, the engineered life we live with designed implements, words endlessly rearranged to be sung. Art is everywhere, even in organic and mineral things. Earth sculpts mountains, the wind draws rivulets with air and water. The world, as Charles Baudelaire wrote, is a forest of symbols, observing you with a familiar gaze.

If you have to know...
Joana is an independent writer and curator, and artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018. She has been an artist assistant, and art critic, a video curator, a commercial gallery director, and has curated numerous exhibitions. Amongst her proudest curatorial achievements are: the touring exhibition of Irma Blank (co-curated with Johana Carrier), working with Inci Eviner on a solo presentation of her work at MCA Amiens in 2023, and Isabelle Ferreira's solo show at MAAT Lisbon in 2025-26. She co-launched Worlding, an art and residency space in London, with Diogo Pimentão in 2021, and her pride and joy, the podcast Exhibitionistas, in 2024.
Ok, one last thing!
Joana has always been an avid consumer of podcasts. She often says that having her own show has made her a better writer. This strange format of intense audio experiences (and video) has, indeed, led to a re-discovery, from the inside, of the potential that social media also has; it can be a collective force for art, and knowledge in general. So, she recently launched her "Visit with Me" series on Instagram, which bring together a written and fun short text and the immediacy of the smartphone video. Take that literacy doomsayers! Social media can favour writing and wordsmithing if someone puts in the effort. To empower you, she also dedicated episodes of the podcast to "digital hygiene". So, she is slowly dropping exclusive YouTube material for the Exhibitionistas YT channel. There is a lot of good stuff out there, you just have to dig up a little; the tech bros are not inclined to favour smart people.
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Recent Episodes
Rachel Cusk | Can Men Be (Good) Artists? | Art & Literature edition
Writer Rachel Cusk asked: "Can a Woman who is an Artist Ever Just Be an Artist?" (NYT). ...
Art Criticism | Does it Still Matter? An Art Curator's Honest Reckoning
Art criticism is vanishing from mainstream media, but here's the uncomfortable question:...
Art Wonderment Manifesto | ft Lao Tzu, Susanna Inglada, Fernando Pessoa's Best Heteronym
AI is forcing us to define what being human is. So, did our host, an art curator and wri...



