João Tabarra was born in Lisbon, in 1966.
João Tabarra lives and works in Lisbon. He attended the photography course at Ar.Co (Centro de Arte & Comunicação Visual). Together with his artistic work, he has been a visiting lecturer at several prominent Portuguese and foreign art institutions and has given a long list of seminars, workshops and masterclasses. He currently works in film direction and also collaborates and writes essays for well-known cinema publications. He is a member of the Honour Committee of the prestigious cinema magazine La Furia Umana.
Amongst his most recent solo and group exhibitions and projects, the following stand out: Biotope (2015, Colégio das Artes, Coimbra), Discrépant (2014, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon), Inner Narrative (2014, CAM-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon), I could live here, with Park Chan-Kyong (2011, JIFFtheque, Jeonju, South Korea), The age of micro voyages (2011, Korea NationalUniversity of Arts, Seoul, Korea and 2010, Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo, Japan), Les Limites du Désert (2010, Galeria Graça Brandão, Lisbon, Portugal and Galeria Art-and-River-Bank, Tokyo, Japan), (…) Marche Solitaire (…) Installations Vidéo, Regard sur le travail video de João Tabarra 1999-2008 (2009, Galerie Le Trarnspalette, Friche culturelle L´Antre-Peaux, Bourges, France), Esto non es una broma (2007, MACUF – Museo de Arte Contemporanea Uníon Fenosa, A Coruña, Spain), No Pain, No Gain (2000, Museu do Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal) and Mute Control (2000, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal). In 2002, he represented Portugal at the XXV Bienal de S. Paulo, Brazil, with an installation titled Poço dos Murmúrios.
His work is represented in several national and foreign collections, both private and institutional: Colecção Berardo, Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea | Museu do Chiado, Fundação de Serralves, Instituto de Arte Contemporânea, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, CGAC – Centro Galego de Arte Contemporânea (Espanha), NSM, VIE / AMRO (França) and Colecção Georges Verney-Carron (França), amongst others.
