Collection:

Afonso Rocha (b. 1999, Portugal) lives and works in London. He completed an MA at City & Guilds of London Art School (2024) and a BA from Porto Faculty of Fine Arts (2021), including a semester at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. He has received several awards, including the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Grant, and was shortlisted for the Jackson’s Painting Prize in 2023. He recently held his first institutional solo exhibition, No Jardim, at the Sintra Museum of Arts. His work is included in public and private collections across Europe and beyond.

Rocha’s practice explores social and interpersonal relationships through irony and humour, using collage to construct layered, ambiguous scenes of contemporary life. Drawing from sources such as literature, photography, social media, and art history, his work blends personal memory with broader cultural references. By merging historical and pop imagery, his paintings question Western art traditions while examining intimacy, desire, and the dynamics of everyday life.

Education

2024 City & Guilds of London Art School, MA Fine Arts, London, UK

2021 Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, BA Fine Arts, Porto, Portugal

2020 École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris, France

Selected exhibitions

2026 London Window, ArtSticker (curated by Rodrigo Chaveiro), Tokyo, JP; 2025 New Geographies, The Tagli, (text by Hector Campbell), London, UK; ACS Studio Prize, Gurr Johns, London, UK; Dolce Far Niente, MYMA (curated by Vittoria Beltrame), Online; Art on a Postcard, Berntson Bhattacharjee, London, UK; Soft Burn, TIDERIP, London, UK; Playground (solo), OMNU Art, Lisbon, Portugal; The Space that Lies Between, Twilight Contemporary, London, UK; No Jardim, MU.SA Sintra Museum of Art, Lisbon, Portugal (solo); Figurative Perspectives, Hurst Contemporary - Soho, London UK; 2023 Jackson’s Painting Prize, Bankside Gallery, London, UK; Encontrarte Art Biennial, Amares, Portugal