Juno Vieira
like air / my struggling lungs / seize you / gasp relief (After Laura Hershey). 15" x 12" x 2", Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, glitter, 2026
Artist Statement
My practice embodies an ongoing effort to capture uninhibited moments of queer joy. Every image on the surface is an ode to the queerdos and the freaks, to the kids who’ve never felt at home anywhere. When creating, each piece begins with a daydream or a distant memory funneling through my hands. The act of sculpting becomes a remembrance ritual and I find that the sculptures create a portal imagining an alternate reality. In a time where being queer means that you need to fight in a multitude of ways, to be seen, to be loved and understood, I use this work as a way to communicate how precious the moments can be when we can just exist freely.
Central to my work is the concept of ‘camp’ as an intersection between absurdity and sincerity or a performance of mundanity. I pull imagery from the summer camp for queer/trans youth I attended through my adolescence, and I warp and recontextualize those images into a narrative. I draw inspiration from intentional queer spaces such as the Land Dykes and the Radical Faerie Movement and find interest in the queer person’s relationship to the natural environment. In my sculptures the queer body and the land are interspersed and equal to one another. When somebody views my work, I hope they can see a shrivel of themselves in it, that they can find themselves whisked away in these worlds I’ve concocted and create something like it for themselves.
you let the pond swallow you whole, 26" x 19" x 2.5", Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, gouache, 2026
we hide under the covers / you hold me in your arms, 4” x 2” x1.5”, Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, 2026
skinny dipping in a lake off the highway, 14" x 7.5" x 2.75", Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, gouache, 2026
let me dance in the water, 27"x21"x6", Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, milk paint, gouache, glitter, 2026
Selected Exhibitions
2026
Contemporary Queer: Abundance, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA. Curated by Jasper A. Sanchez.
at/tending, a/mending, Coil and Cord Studio, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Carter Shocket.
Stephen D. Paine Exhibition, Laconia Gallery, Boston, MA. Juried by Gabrielle Niu.
NCECA Featured Exhibition: Outpour, Galerie Camille, Detroit, MI. Curated by Sorrel Stone and Carly Riegger.
Fine Arts 3D Exhibition, Mass College of Art and Design, Design and Media Center.
Weight and Measure, Gallery VERY, Boston, MA. Curated by John Guthrie.
2025
The Big Show, Gallery VERY, Boston, MA. Curated by John Guthrie.
MX. Media, Flower City Arts Center, Rochester, NY.
Mudflat National Juried Exhibition: No Apologies, Mudflat Pottery School, Somerville, MA. Juried by Corran Shrimpton.
In The Arms of Two Oceans (Dual exhibition with Charlie Aster Reid) Mass College of Art and Design, North Crackertorium.
All School Show: Ceramics and Printmaking, Mass College of Art and Design, Thompson Gallery.
Fine Arts 3D Exhibition, Mass College of Art and Design, Design and Media Center.
CLAY 2025 - The Annual Ceramics Department Exhibition, Mass College of Art and Design, Student Life Gallery.
2024
Haystack 44th Annual Exhibition, Mass College of Art and Design, Student Life Gallery.
2023
3D Sculpture Exhibition, Mass College of Art and Design, Godine Family Gallery.
Haystack 43rd Annual Exhibition, Mass College of Art and Design, Student Life Gallery.
Inviting Soft Possibilities, The Station in The Fenway, Boston MA.
The Dream Library, Mass College of Art and Design, Godine Family Gallery.
2022
Haystack 42nd Annual Exhibition, Mass College of Art and Design, Student Life Gallery.
Annual Salon Show, Essex Art Center, Lawrence, MA.
Residencies
Making the Thing to Make the Thing Summer Residency, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle ME, June-July 2026.
Queering Mud Summer Residency, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle ME, August 2024.
Publications
Divide Magazine, Issue 15 (September 2025) *1 Image
Communal Resilience: Mass Poetry’s 2025 Intercollegiate Poetry Anthology, April 2025 * 1 Poem