Joanna De Vos is an art historian and independent curator based in Belgium. She graduated in Art History from the University of Ghent with a thesis on the portrayal of the male nude by women photographers. As an author, she has contributed to numerous art publications and exhibition catalogues. Her curatorial practice is marked by a commitment to fostering connections between contemporary and historical art, exploring themes that resonate deeply with human experience.
Joanna De Vos has curated numerous large-scale exhibitions, both in Belgium and internationally. Among her notable projects in Belgium are Facing Time. Rops/Fabre (Namur, 2015), The Artist/Knight (Brussels, 2017), and The Raft. Art is (not) Lonely (Ostend, 2017-2018, co-curated with Jan Fabre). In the Netherlands she curated The Sensation of the Sea. In Honour of Bas Jan Ader (2018-2019), a dialogue between contemporary artists and 19th-century works from The Mesdag Collection, commissioned by the Van Gogh Museum.
Furthermore her international collaborations include Fontes Amoris, the solo exhibition of Russian artist Sasha Frolova at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2020), and working extensively with Belgian artist Jan Fabre on several of his solo exhibitions, including Spiritual Guards (Florence, 2016, co-curated with Melania Rossi), Ecstasy & Oracles (Sicily, 2018, co-curated with Melania Rossi), Loyalty and Vanity (South Korea, 2018), There is no escape from art (Bulgaria, 2019), Feast of Little Friends (Serbia, 2020), and New Works | Mosaics (Wilde Gallery, Basel, 2023). At the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), she curated Fabre’s The Man Who Measures the Clouds (Monument to the Measure of the Immeasurable), an open-air installation displayed in the garden of Palazzo Balbi Valier, visible from the Grand Canal.
In 2019, De Vos founded SEEN, a non-profit project space in Antwerp dedicated to immersive art experiences, inviting international artists and curators to create on-site installations. After one year at its original location, SEEN became a nomadic platform, integrating art into unexpected spaces and fostering connections between artists, curators, and audiences.
In 2020, drawing from her family’s history with the circus, Joanna De Vos invited over 70 international artists to create self-portraits as clowns, embracing this world of wonder and transformation. The Clown Spirit – The Traveling Exhibition premiered in Antwerp (De Rossaert, Ronny Van de Velde Gallery, 2020-2021) before traveling to Namur (Belgian Gallery, as part of The Circus We Are, 2022) and Rome (Galleria Mucciaccia, 2023). Now featuring over 95 artists, the exhibition continues to evolve, exploring the paradox of the clown-artist figure—melancholic yet joyous, subversive yet absurd—someone who can be permitted to play with truths and fictions and manages to expose the mechanisms of life – the circus of life.
This fascination with art and circus extended into The Circus We Are, a major exhibition shown across multiple locations in Namur (2022), Belgium, including Le Delta, Musée Félicien Rops, Musée des Arts Anciens, and Belgian Gallery. As De Vos articulated, “Art and circus: they both play a connecting role that should not be underestimated and they have the power to collectively reveal the essence of humanity.”
Her interest in unconventional and poetic themes continued in 2023 with Nasi per l’arte, an exhibition in Rome conceived alongside co-curator Melania Rossi. This display united over 50 works, seamlessly connecting Belgian and Italian art, as well as historic and contemporary pieces, all centred around the unexpected yet evocative theme of the nose.
Joanna De Vos uses ‘curious and keen’ as both her tagline and the guiding principle behind all her projects. Art and life are deeply intertwined for her, and she shares this passion by creating immersive contemporary art experiences. Ephemeral energies are at the core of her curatorial practice. Throughout every project, she reaches into the human soul: art often succeeds in conveying our deepest and most elusive feelings and motivations. She consciously researches artists who explore the essence of being, intimacy, and rapture, delving into themes that resonate with the complexities of modern life and deeper philosophical inquiries. While continuously eager to discover new artists and forge fresh connections, Joanna also purposefully cultivates intense and long-term relationships with the artists she supports.