Tura Oliveira nasce a Fall River (USA) nel 1990. Vive e lavora a Brooklyn (USA).

È un’artista multidisciplinare che lavora tra scultura, tessili, pittura, installazione e performance. La sua pratica utilizza tessuti recuperati, fotogrammi su seta, quilting, soft sculpture, tecniche di fusione e saldatura, per esplorare i temi del lavoro e delle strutture di potere, intrecciando immaginari legati all’orrore, al genere, alla fantascienza e all’estasi spirituale. Le sue figure aliene agiscono come corpi liminali, luoghi di possessione e frattura, capaci di rivelare la fragilità dell’ordine simbolico.

Ha conseguito un MFA presso la Yale School of Art e un BFA presso la Rhode Island School of Design. Nel 2023 ha ricevuto il Dean’s Prize della Yale School of Art, una commissione d’arte pubblica dalla città di New York e la borsa di studio Abbey Awards della British School at Rome. Ha ricevuto borse di studio e sovvenzioni da NYFA, BRIC, The Museum of Arts and Designs, Wave Hill, Ars Nova, A.I.R. Gallery, Yaddo e Tides Institute.

Tura Oliveira was born in Fall River (USA) in 1990, she lives and works in Brooklyn (USA).

She is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, textiles, painting, installation, and performance. Their practice employs reclaimed textiles, silk photograms, quilting, soft sculpture, casting, and welding techniques to explore themes of labor and structures of power, weaving together imaginaries of horror, gender, science fiction, and spiritual ecstasy. Their alien figures act as liminal bodies—sites of possession and rupture—capable of revealing the fragility of the symbolic order.

Oliveira holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2023, they received the Dean’s Prize from Yale School of Art, a public art commission from the City of New York, and the Abbey Award from the British School at Rome. They have also been awarded grants and residencies from NYFA, BRIC, The Museum of Arts and Design, Wave Hill, Ars Nova, A.I.R. Gallery, Yaddo, and the Tides Institute.

Education

2023
MFA Yale School of Art New Haven, CT

2013
BFA Rhode Island School of Design Providence, RI

Art Residencies

2025-2027
Endeavor Fellow Sarah Lawrence College New York, NY

2025-2026
Studio Residency Silver Art Projects New York, NY

2023-2024
Abbey Award Fellowship British School at Rome Rome, Italy

2021
StudioWorks Residence Program Tides Institute Eastport, ME

2020
BRIC ArtFP BRIC New York, NY
Craft/Sculpture Fellowship NYSCA/NYFA New York, NY

2019
New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship Wave Hill New York, NY
Artist in Residence Horned Dorset Colony Leonardsville, NY

2018
Workspace Residency BRIC Brooklyn, NY
Residency Yaddo Saratoga Springs, NY
Artist Studios Residency Program Museum of Arts and Design New York, NY

2017
Governor's Island Studio Residency AIR Gallery New York, NY
Maker's Lab Ars Nova New York, NY

2012
New York Studio Residency Program AICAD New York, NY

Awards

2023
Rosa Lee Travel Award Edwin Abbey Council London, UK
Dean’s Prize Yale University New Haven, CT

Commissions

2023
Public Art Commission NYC Department of Cultural Affairs New York, NY
Artist Suite Meliá NoMad New York, NY

2022
Eros Kisses Chaos in the Veil of Cashmere One World Trade New York, NY

2021
We Are At a Moment That Will Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Great Change,
For Who Can Say When a Wall Is Ready To Come Down
Lena Horne Bandshell at Prospect Park Brooklyn, NY
You are Only Sea Foam, So Give Yourself Away Like the Sea
New York Live Arts New York, NY
Earth-Eater UICA Grand Rapids, MI

Catalogues

2024
Expodemic Palazzo Delle Esposizioni Edition of 1000
Year of Women: Tura Oliveira La Mama Galleria Edition of 100

2023
A Signal Urgent But Breaking Yale School of Art Edition of 150

2021
even there, there are stars CUE Art Foundation Edition of 300

2018
So Thick That Everybody Else in the Room is So Uncomfortable Zine Edition of 50

Articles

2025
Alessandro Viapiana, 10 artisti che ho scoperto ad Artissima 2025, L’officiel Italia
William Corwin, William Corwin on Tura Oliveira, Mutt Art Review

2024
Angelica Gatto, You were kept awake all through the night, ATP Diary
Giorgio Villani, Festival delle Accademie, Il Manifesto
Livia Montagnoli, Le prime mostre d’arte al mondo sono state fatte Roma a fine ‘600.
Una mostra al Palazzo delle Esposizioni spiega tutto, Artribune
Maria Pinotti, British School at Rome: the monstrous dreamer and visionary, Juliet

2023
Josie Thaddeus-Johns, 6 New Yale MFA Grads Share Their Visions of a Changing
World, Artsy.com
Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, Check Into A Colorful, Esoteric Artist Designed Suite, Forbes
Rhea Nayyar, Queer Love Shines in a Bronx Exhibition, Hyperallergic

2022
Jillian Steinhauer, Art We Saw This Summer, New York Times

2021
Gabriel H. Sanchez, Tura Oliveira, Art Forum
Annabel Keenan, OUTSIDE LA: Tura Oliveira, Artillery Magazine
Clare Gemima, Gallery Watch: Tura Oliveira at Geary on the Bowery, EV Grieve
Vittoria Benzine, Colorful Chaos at the Prospect Park Bandshell, Brooklyn Magazine
The Approval Matrix: Week of November 8, 2021, New York Magazine
Diana Budds, A Surreal Woven Chandelier, Archival Posters, and Other Things I Liked
This Week, Curbed New York Magazine
Hrag Vartanian, With a Medieval Flair, Spring Break Art Show Celebrates the Eccentric, Hyperallergic

2025
Smoking Section, Gotham NYC New York, NY, USA
Golden Thread, South Street Seaport, New York, NY, USA
Between the fictional, the possible, and the true, RISD Memorial Hall Providence, RI

2024
Fever Sleeps Upright (with Augustin Rebetez), Unosunove Rome, Italy
The Blood Vessel (with Baxter Koziol), Yve Yang Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Carry a Torch, La Mama Galleria, New York, NY, USA
Stendardi Rionali, Roma Diffusa, Rome, Italy
Expodemic, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
you were kept awake all through the night, British School At Rome, Rome, Italy

2023
Quilting a Future, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Monstra, Good Mother Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
A Breath on Glass, Spurs Gallery, Beijing, China
Holding, Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY
NADA Foreland, Foreland, Catskill, NY
A Signal Urgent But Breaking, Perrotin, New York, NY
Queer Love, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
A Signal Urgent But Breaking, Green Gallery Yale University, New Haven, CT

2022
Refabrications, Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY
Our Mother The Mountain, LaMama Galleria, New York, NY
A Prologue to Somewhere, Green Gallery Yale University, New Haven, CT
I Sing the Body Electric, Dune Alpin, East Hampton, NY
Come Out & Play, BEERS London, London, UK
By Tomorrow, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, New Haven, CT

2021
Action Required, Green Gallery Yale University, New Haven, CT
Out, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY
if still ourselves, a thing to become, Baik + Khneysser, Los Angeles, CA
Other Worlds, UICA, Grand Rapids, MI
even there, there are stars, CUE Art Foundation, New York, NY

2020
Scylla, Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA
Love 2020 Perfect Visions, Neiman Gallery Columbia University, New York, NY