Alice Neel
Beautifully Imperfect
16 July 2026—17 January 2027
Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal
The exhibition, presented in the Álvaro Siza Wing of the Serralves Museum, celebrates the work of American painter Alice Neel (1900–1984), whose unique vision challenged the social, aesthetic, and political conventions of the 20th century. Neel saw imperfection not as a flaw, but as essence—a raw expression of the human condition and a response to normative models of beauty, identity, and visibility.
Organized around thematic clusters, the exhibition addresses intimacy, the female body, motherhood, aging, and the forgotten faces of society: from immigrants and LGBTQIA+ activists to the working population of Harlem and the anonymous figures of everyday urban life. In her expressive, often seemingly unfinished paintings, Neel captured not only portraits of individuals, but also testimonies of resistance and dignity in the face of social erasure.
Beautifully Imperfect proposes itself as a way of looking at and being in the world—an invitation to authenticity and empathy through art. This exhibition reaffirms Serralves' commitment to giving voice to artists whose work continues to inspire new ways of seeing and representing humanity.