Flávia Junqueira (São Paulo, Brazil, 1985) lives and works in São Paulo. She holds a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and a postgraduate degree in Photography from the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, an MA in Visual Poetics from ECA-USP, and a PhD from the Institute of Arts at UNICAMP.
The visual world of childhood and the imaginary world constructed around this period of life serve as the inspiration and starting point for the artist's work. In it, scenes of the real and the fictional, the physical and the allegorical, the present and the past, the adult and the child come together and connect. She uses photography and set design in architectural and open-air spaces to create atmospheres of illusion and enchantment.
The staged-photography technique explored by Flávia Junqueira allows her to plan images in which every element is carefully selected and arranged to express preconceived ideas. Her choice of locations—primarily historic theatres and other culturally significant spaces—provides a backdrop for her artistic interventions, reaffirming the relevance of places that are often overlooked. Her research includes the cataloguing of historic theatres, undertaken since around 2022, with photographs taken at sites such as the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, the Palacio de Santoña, the Château de Fontainebleau, the Palácio de Linares, the Theatro Pedro II in Ribeirão Preto, the Teatro Colón in Bogotá, the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, and the Ruins of the Convento de São Boaventura in Itaboraí. The artist has worked in theatre set design alongside the architect and scenographer J. C. Serroni.
The poetic contrast between temporalities is a striking feature of her works, in which historic heritage coexists with balloons, evoking the magic of childhood in settings rich in history. Flávia Junqueira seeks to reclaim forgotten spaces, giving them new life and narrative while deconstructing conventional expectations. Although not primarily focused on childhood, her work reveals an interest in exploring atypical realities and playful elements as strategies for addressing complex subjects such as death and trauma.
The artist's works are held in prestigious collections such as MAR-RJ, MAM-SP, MIS-SP, MAB-FAAP, the Museu do Itamaraty, the World Bank, the Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, the Coleção Banco Santander, the Coleção Farol Santander, the Museu de Atibaia, and the Coleção Sérgio Carvalho.
Her work has been featured in notable projects and exhibitions, including Culture and Conflict: IZOLYATSIA in Exile at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2014), The World Bank Art Program at the Kaunas Photo Festival (2010), Tomorrow I will be born again at the Cité Des Arts (2011), and Subjetivo Feminino: una Mirada Latino Americana, part of the Photo España project, at the Instituto Cervantes São Paulo (2009), as well as Projeto para finais felizes, presented in the Temporada de Projetos at Paço das Artes (São Paulo, 2013), which received the Prêmio Energias na Arte from Instituto Tomie Ohtake in 2009. Other notable contributions include Gorlovka in the Programa Itinerâncias Nova Fotografia (2015), and Tentativas e Apostas – Notas de um Processo in the exhibition Red Bull House of Art – Artistic Residency São Paulo-SP (2010).
In recent years, she has held a series of solo exhibitions and immersive installations that expand this research, including Flávia Junqueira no Baile at Sala Ali – Casa Bradesco (São Paulo, 2025); an immersive installation at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 2025); Alegoría at Sorondo Projects, in partnership with Reiners Contemporary (Barcelona, 2025); Extasia at Centro Cultural FIESP (São Paulo, 2024); Banca Galeria's open-air project at Parque Ibirapuera (São Paulo, 2024); The Absurd and the Grace at Gilman Contemporary (Sun Valley, Idaho, United States, 2024); Symphony of Illusions at Galeria Voss (Düsseldorf, 2023); Revoada #3 at Pátio Higienópolis (São Paulo, 2022); and the exhibitions Revoada at Farol Santander Porto Alegre and Farol Santander São Paulo (2021). This trajectory also includes Party Cloud at Izolyatsia (Donetsk, Ukraine, 2012). At Zipper Galeria, where she has held five solo exhibitions, highlights include Rêverie (São Paulo, 2024), Igrejas barrocas e cavalinhos de pau (São Paulo, 2021), O Absurdo e a Graça (2019), and Quando os monstros envelhecem (2016), which further explore her investigation into memory, theatricality, and enchantment within the exhibition space.