Isabel de Vasconcellos is a writer, curator, moderator and cultural producer specialising in sculpture and public art. Her work focuses on how ambitious artworks are realised beyond the studio, and how artistic thinking is translated for institutions, commissioners and public audiences over time.

Over more than two decades, she has worked alongside internationally recognised artists on major public commissions and exhibitions across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas, developing a practice that bridges production, interpretation and public conversation. Collaborating closely with fabricators, engineers, designers and curatorial teams, she brings long-term insight into the practical and conceptual challenges of working at scale in shared space.

Her expertise in public art led to a commission from the Mayor of London to write Fourth Plinth: How London Created the Smallest Sculpture Park in the World, a project that deepened her research into commissioning structures, public reception and the evolving civic role of sculpture.

Isabel’s career began at the intersection of galleries, museums and artists during a pivotal period in contemporary art, working with White Cube before joining Antony Gormley’s studio to help deliver major public artworks including Quantum Cloud for the Millennium Dome. Alongside production, she has written widely on contemporary art and collaborated on publications including Tony Godfrey’s Conceptual Art for Phaidon’s Art & Ideas series.

Since establishing her independent practice in 2009, she has advised museums, cultural organisations and commissioning bodies on artist-led programmes, exhibitions and complex projects, supporting teams from early development through to public engagement. Her approach combines curatorial sensitivity with production experience, helping organisations anticipate pressure points, strengthen dialogue and build meaningful context around work unfolding in public.

She created and presents long-running artist conversation programmes, including the Royal Society of Sculptors’ Behind the Studio Doors, exploring studio practice, collaboration and decision-making across international sculptural practice. These sustained dialogues inform her writing, moderation and advisory work.

Isabel writes, speaks and advises on how ambitious artworks are realised, drawing on long-term conversations with artists and experience producing major public commissions internationally.

She collaborates with a trusted network of specialists to realise exhibitions and permanent and temporary public artworks with a culturally informed, artist-centred approach.

Born in Lisbon and raised between London and Brussels, she studied Modern History and French at Oxford University and completed an M.A. in Post-War and Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Patron of AIDS Memory UK, the campaign for a London AIDS memorial.