Bio
Monica Correia received her “Cum Laude” Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her MFA degree in 3D Design from the University of Iowa.
She has had exhibitions at several art and design venues including “London Design Fair”, “Design London”, “100% Design: Emerging Brands” and “DesignJunction”, all in London, UK; “EDIT DesignJunction”, “DIN-Design In”, both in Milan, Italy; “International Contemporary Furniture Fair” (ICFF) in New York City; and “BIO.23: Biennial of Design Show” in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her pieces have also been displayed at “Salão Design Casa Brasil”, “Abiplast Design Award”, “Liceu de Design Award” in Brazil; “The Skin of Corian®”, in Milan, Italy; at the Krasl Art Center ArtLab Saint Joseph, MI; Chico Art Center, CA, and the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art, KS, among others.
Her work as Professor and head of the 3D Design program at the University of Iowa School of Art & Art History has been awarded the prestigious “ICFF Editor’s Award for Best School” in New York City in 2015. Furthermore, she received with her students the distinguished “SOFA CONNECT” award for best design environment in Chicago in 2014, 2015, and 2019.
Before moving to the US, she taught at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro School of Architecture and designed interiors for stores and shopping malls in Brazil and Portugal.
Contact
Artist Statement
Monica Correia is an artist and designer that lives and works in Iowa City, Iowa. She is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she grew up in contact with an exuberant natural environment. In addition to this, she was raised in a family where women kept many Portuguese craft traditions alive. The opportunity to move to Iowa brought her in contact with new technologies, such as the Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC), which impacted the way she looked at fabrication processes.
Monica Correia believes in the art of designing with her heart and soul and does not limit her work to preconceived forms or trends. Therefore, she works in a variety of media, materials, technologies, and scales. She is constantly investigating ways to combine materials, colors, and textures with different technologies and processes to connect with the viewer or user.
She is attracted to the way organic forms evoke emotions and express the ephemeral qualities of movement found in dance, music, and nature. These qualities are also widely found in Portuguese craft. She enjoys collecting findings from different processes. In her research, she seeks ways to utilize various technologies to empower her work and strengthen the reference to the Portuguese craft tradition.
