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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Joana Vasconcelos: Beyond

Jan 7, 2021 – Jan 9, 2022
West Bretton, Wakefield WF4 4LG

“I am a conceptual artist,” the renowned Portuguese sculptor Joana Vasconcelos has said. “I’m not like the sculptors of the 19th century, using a technique, or a specific material as starting point and then developing the art pieces. I’m an artist that works from an idea, and then I build it.” Vasconcelos, who was born in 1971, produces work that reaches back to the Nouveau Réalisme and pop art of the 1960s. She plays with scale, and reappropriates the readymade into sculptures outsized, iconic, and ironic. Though the museum is temporarily shuttered, “Beyond” includes six splendid outdoor sculptures from Vasconcelos, which are displayed on the museum’s grounds. Among the works on view are 2016’s Pop Galo, a giant multicolored rooster; 2018’s blingy Solitaire and I’ll Be Your Mirror; and 2019’s airy ice cream cone Tutti Frutti. —E.C.

Joana Vasconcelos, “Solitaire,” 2018. Photo © Jonty Wilde, courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park.