THELMA POTT was born in 1984. She currently lives and works in Porto.
After finishing her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon, she took her MA in Curatorial Studies at the Royal College of Arts at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.
In 2013 she won the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Project Grant in Lisbon. In September 2019 she won the Reclaim Award in Cologne, Germany. Her work was selected by the jury: Tim Berresheim (artist), Stéphane Biesenbach (galerist at Gallery Biesenbach), Christof Breidenich (Programme Director of Design at the Macromedia Academy of Cologne), Gabriele Conrath-Scholl (Director of the Photographic Collection/SK Cultural Foundation), Ditmar Schädel (Director of the German Society of Photography [DGPh]) and Anja K. Sevcik (Director, Dept. Baroque at Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Foundation Corboud). In April 2022 she was awarded the WAA Woman Art Award 2022 - a project officially recognized by UNESCO in 2020 as "Project for excellence for Gender Equality”.
She started exhibiting her work in 2017 has one of the artists from the art coalition HANDS OFF OUR REVOLUTION in the group show Poster! at BlackBall Projects Gallery in New York. Hands Off Our Revolution kicked off Thursday, February 16, 2017, with an animated web banner by British artist Mark Titchner that reads: “Hands off our borders; Hands off our cities; Hands off our homes; Hands off our planet; Hands off our justice; Hands off our loves; Hands off our lives […]”. Hands off is a group of artists united to counter small-minded prejudice. Their art affirms their humanity and they insist on inclusion of all and for all. They call for action by people of good conscience to stand against the abhorrent policies of the governments that claim to represent us. Among these artists are John Akomfrah, Laurie Anderson, Yto Barrada, Sophie Calle, Olafur Eliasson, Douglas Gordon, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, Steve McQueen, Ed Ruscha, Hito Steyerl and Wolfgang Tillmans.
Among other exhibitions, in Autumn 2019 her work was exhibited in Cologne, Germany, as she won the Reclaim Award 2019 which sees the artist’s work displayed on public billboards. In 2020 she exhibited at Rossocinabro Gallery in Rome in the group exhibition “Co-Existence 7” during April - July. In May that year she took part in the group show “Nude Affiliation & Portraiture” at Pepney Gallery in Cavan, Ireland. In April 2021 she showed her work in Rome in the group exhibition “Artists of Today and of Tomorrow” curated by Monica Ferrarini. The exhibition book was introduced by the curator at the Italian art tv channel Arte 24. In July 2021 she was part of Florence Contemporary Gallery's group show “Rebirth”.
Later in October 2021 she exhibited her work at the Florence Biennale in Italy. During the Biennale she was also one of the artists that performed at Michelangelo Pistoletto and Angelo Savarese's performance "La Bandiera del Mondo 1+1=3". Last November her work her work was shown in the group show “Contemporary Venice 9 - Mixing Identities and Future Landscapes” curated by Luca Curci at the Misericordia Archives in Venice.
This year her work featured in the group show “State of the Art ”curated by Monica Ferrarini that opened in January at Palazzo Maffei Marescotti in Rome. In March 2022 she exhibited her drawings at the group exhibition “Multitude” curated by Anna Isoppo at Luciana Matalon Foundation in Milan. In April her work was shown at Tana Art Space in the pioneer project Biennale Art Box Expo in the Venice Biennale. Pott also exhibited in Paris at gallery 24b in the group show Women’s Essence curated by Professor Laura di Trapani.
Her most recent exhibition was a solo show Hidden Place at Gubian Gallery in Porto, Portugal. It was her first show in the country. The exhibition premiered on the 14th of May and ran until the 9th of July.
In 2018 as well as in 2019 her work was distinguished by the Canadian art magazine: Art Ascent. Her work featured in the artist’s directory at the June/July 2019 edition of the British art magazine Aesthetica. She was also published by the British art magazine Inside Artists in their Spring Summer 2020 edition. Her work can also be seen in the first edition of Art Hole Magazine June 2020 edition. The Flux Review published a Q&A with the artist in November 2020. She featured in the March 2021 edition of the British Art Magazine BlueBee: Amaryllis. Early this year, in February the online art magazine Contemporary Art Curator published her work as the artist features in the exhibition The Butterfly Effect curated by the eponymous art collective. In March 2022, the art magazine Altiba 9, present at the art book fair ARTLIBRIS Barcelona and at the art fairs ARCO Madrid and ARCO Lisboa, published the artist's work in its tenth edition. In May 2022 Pott’s work featured in the British art magazine Art Seen.
Her photography series can be seen at LensCulture.
