João Penalva was born in Lisbon in 1949. He has lived and worked in Lisbon since 2021, having lived in London between 1972 and 2021.

He began his dance studies in 1968 at the São Carlos National Theatre, which he continued in London at the London School of Contemporary Dance. In the 1970s he was a dancer with the companies of Pina Bausch in Wuppertal, Gerhard Bohner in Darmstadt and Jean Pomares in Copenhagen.

He studied visual arts at the Chelsea School of Art in London from 1976 to 1981 (BA (Hons) and Master of Fine Arts). He taught at the Malmö Art Academy, Lund University, Sweden, from 2002 to 2024. His work includes painting, photography, sound, video, film, text, and installation.

He represented Portugal at the São Paulo International Biennale in 1996 and at the Venice Biennale in 2001. He exhibited at the Berlin Biennale in 2001 and at the Sydney Biennale in 2002.

His solo exhibitions include: CCB, Lisbon, 1998; Camden Art Centre, London; Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius; Tramway, Glasgow, 2000; The Power Plant, Toronto, 2003; Serralves Museum, Porto, Ludwig Museum Budapest, 2005; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2006; Mead Gallery, Universidade de Warwick, 2007; Lunds Konsthall, Lund, Sweden, 2010; CAM, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 2011; Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Norway, 2014; MUDAM, Musée d'Art Moderne, Luxembourg, 2018; Culturgest, Porto; Lumiar Cité, Lisbon, 2018; Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, 2017.

João Penalva’s group shows include: Tate Modern, Hayward Gallery, Wellcome Collection, South London Gallery, London; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K21, Düsseldorf; Museu Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; MAAT and Museu Berardo, Lisbon; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea.

Public collections: Arts Council England, South London Gallery, Towner Museum of Contemporary Art, United Kingdom; Fundação Serralves, Fundação Gulbenkian, Coleção do Estado Português, Museu Berardo, Portugal; Ludwig Museum Budapest, Hungary; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland; MUDAM, Luxembourg; KIASMA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland; Deutsche Bank, Germany; Western Bridge, The Bill and Ruth True Collection, Seattle, U.S.A. 

João Penalva is represented by Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto; Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisbon; Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin.