Joana Villaverde was born in Lisbon (b. 1970) and currently lives and works in Avis. She has been exhibiting regularly in Portugal and abroad since 1998. She was a scholar of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the Location One residency in New York. She is also a resident artist at the Guest House of the Qattan Foundation in Ramallah. Joana regularly collaborates in theater, creating stage designs for productions presented in various national theaters. She has published "Emma" (Cavalo de Ferro, 2003) and "Animals Nightmare" (Edições Documenta, 2017). In 2016, she developed the project "Mar" with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Bensaúde Group. In 2018, she inaugurated her Officina Mundi studio in Avis, where she assumes the artistic direction and programming. Her work is represented in the MAAT-Fundação EDP Collection, quARTel Collection Fernando Ribeiro, Diocese of Beja, and in various private collections in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Palestine.