Valentina Gaia Lops (Milan, 1986)
Artist-researcher. Mediator.
STATEMENT
Interdisciplinary artist-researcher working across contemporary art, education, and community-based artistic mediation. Their work develops through practice-based research, engaging artistic processes as sites of critical knowledge production.
RESIDENCIES AND RESEARCH
Fabra i Coats – UIC Barcelona, Barcelona — Cultural Management Residency, 2025–present
Santa Mònica Centre d’Art, Barcelona — Research Residency, 2025
EN RESiDÈNCiA — Creators in Residence in Barcelona’s Secondary Schools (ICUB / Consorci d’Educació), 2023–2024
Centre Cívic Jardins de la Pau, El Prat de Llobregat — Unzip Visual Arts Grant (Photography and Society), 2022
EART (Experimentem amb l’Art), Barcelona — Research Residency, 2022
MEDIATION, PUBLIC PROGRAMMES & CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
30 de Febrer — Artistic Mediator, Art Explora Festival, Barcelona, 2026
Cicles d’Art i Salut Mental — Ongoing Research and Mediation Programme, 2026–present.
Fabra i Coats, Barcelona — Intensive with Nita Little (curated with Caro Novella and Ainara Coats), 2025
Fabra i Coats, Barcelona — Jornada de la Escucha (with Col·lectiu Corso), 2025
Fabra i Coats, Barcelona — F.A.A.C.C.C. Festival of Community Arts of Catalonia, ¿Qué es la salud para ti? (with Col·lectiu Corso), 2025
Fabra i Coats, Barcelona — F.A.A.C.C.C. Festival of Community Arts of Catalonia, Cuerpos en escucha (performative occupation), 2023
Eix Jove (Ajuntament de Barcelona), Barcelona — Grup d’Acció Creativa (GAC), Artistic Mentor (youth contemporary art programme), 2024–present
Centre Cívic Barceloneta, Barcelona — De la Imatge al Cos (founder and director, somatic and visual arts mediation lab within “Dona i Art”), 2023–2024
Can Carreras / Asproseat, Barcelona — Arts and health programme for adults with intellectual disabilities, 2023–2024
La Escocesa, Barcelona — Comité Queer (coordinated by Agustín Ortiz Herrera), Queer the Lens, 2023
Tudanzas (community-based cultural association) — Artistic Mentor, Barcelona, 2023
LiberArte — Founder and Director (participatory artistic research and community-based practices), 2022–present
Quarantined of the World — artist-initiated participatory online project, 2020-2021
Mural Arts Philadelphia, Philadelphia — Public art mediation (community-based project), 2018
EXHIBITIONS AND CURATORIAL PROJETCS
Temporals — Ajuntament de Barcelona, Barcelona — Noves vies (selected for production in the public art programme), 2025–2026
Centre Cívic El Coll – La Bruguera, Barcelona — Fúria (Adonat programme), El Informe, 2026
FemArt / Ca la Dona, Barcelona — Desobedecer, Desordenar, Desorientar, Desear (within Emergències.6, co-curated with Oblicua and Kekena Corvalán), 2024
Ca la Dona, Barcelona — Tengo Tanto Amor Que No Tengo Miedo: Prácticas artísticas contra el fin del mundo (with Kekena Corvalán, Nora Ancarola and Col·lectiu FemArt), 2024
Club9, Barcelona — Open curatorial project, 2024
Centre Cívic Can Verdaguer, Barcelona — Estados de Tránsito (co-curated with Frank Trobok), 2023
ULLAL — Transfeminist Photography Festival, Barcelona — Gorda, 2023
Centre Cívic Can Barceloneta, Barcelona — Habitar els Marges (co-curated with Ida Barbati), 2023
Centre Cívic Jardins de la Pau, Barcelona — Cuerpos en escucha (co-curated with Ida Barbati), 2022
Centre Cívic Can Barceloneta, Barcelona — M/Other, 2022
Centre Cívic Can Verdaguer, Barcelona — Mover un cuerpo, 2023
Eastern Edge Gallery, Canada — The Body House Project, 2022
Queer Amnesty Art Show, Ireland — activist-led queer art exhibition (curated), 2021
Matriz Woman Artists — We Are One, Quarantined of the World, 2021
TALKS
University of Barcelona / Esbrina — El gir social de les arts a l’escola i el paper de la tecnologia digital, (with Ida Barbati), 2024
University of Barcelona / Jiser — Mirades crítiques, territoris, col·lectius i subjectivitats polítiques, 2023
Centre Cívic Barceloneta, Barcelona — Art i salut (in the context of Lara Díez Quintanilla’s performance El sensespai), 2023
Eastern Edge Gallery, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada — Art as a Tool for Social Transformation, 2021
TheatreMakersIE, Ireland — Art in Isolation, 2021
BNA Neuroscience / Festival of Neuroscience, Dublin — Cognitive Musicology via Synaesthesia, 2019
GRANTS & AWARDS
Temporals Production Grant — Ajuntament de Barcelona, Noves vies, 2024
Unzip Arts Visuals Grant — EART, Barcelona, Cuerpos en escucha, 2022
Roberta Thomas Legacy Award — Neighborhood Dance Works, The Body House Project, 2021
I Am Amnesty Award — Amnesty International Dublin, 2019
Liz Lerman Merit Scholarship — Dance Exchange / DX Institute, Maryland, USA, 2018
EDUCATION
University of Barcelona — PhD Programme in Art and Education (auditor)
Dublin Business School — Psychology
IULM University, Milan — Arts and Cultural Management