Davis Lisboa

Davis Lisboa (São Paulo, Brazil, 1965) is a visual artist, illustrator, and painter based in Barcelona since 1986. His multidisciplinary practice—spanning drawing, painting, digital media, and video—interrogates the boundaries between applied and fine arts, craftsmanship and technology, art and commerce.

In 2009, he founded the Davis Museum | The Davis Lisboa Mini-Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, a conceptual artwork recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya. Conceived as both a ready-made sculpture and an independent curatorial platform, the Davis Museum explores the politics of display, authorship, and institutional critique, echoing precedents by Marcel Duchamp, Robert Filliou, and Marcel Broodthaers.

Lisboa’s hybrid approach—oscillating between studio production and curatorial invention—positions him within a lineage of artists who transform the museum into a form of art. His works have been exhibited internationally in museums, biennials, and experimental art contexts, and are held in private collections across Europe and the Americas.

1978–1982 — ETEC Carlos de Campos, São Paulo, Brazil — Specialization in Communication Drawing
1987–1990 — Escola Massana, Centre d’Art i Disseny, Barcelona, Spain — Painting
1996–2008 — Facultat de Belles Arts, Universitat de Barcelona — B.A. in Fine Arts, Painting specialization

Lisboa’s academic training combines the discipline of technical drawing with a theoretical foundation in fine arts, shaping his dual identity as both illustrator and contemporary painter.

Lisboa has exhibited internationally in museums, biennials, and contemporary art spaces in Europe and the Americas. Selected participations include:

2024 — [M]UMoCA, itinerant project by Tomás Ruiz-Rivas, Red Itner, Spain
2023 — Atomic Archives, Harddiskmuseum by Solimán López, Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU), Bogotá, Colombia
2020 — Mirades des del confinament, curated by Joan Fontcuberta, Òmnium Cultural, Igualada, Spain
2014 — Eleven: The John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA) 10-Year Retrospective, Harn Museum of Art & Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Florida, USA
2011 — Museum Show, curated by Nav Haq, Arnolfini, Bristol’s International Centre for Contemporary Arts, England
2007 — VI Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte Contemporanea di Firenze, Italy

Additional exhibitions include venues in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Madrid, São Paulo, and Barcelona.