Adriana Varejão

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adriana Varejão (born 1964, Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian artist. She works in various disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and photography. She was an artist-in-resident at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2004.[1] Varejão lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.[2]

Adriana Varejão, Panacea Phantastica, 2003 – 2008, at Inhotim, Brazil

Influences[]

References to the effects of colonialism of Brazil by Europe, are apparent in her work as well as art history and illusion.[3] Her work alludes to expansion and transformation of cultural identity, yet continues the use of her theme of understanding the past, in order to understand the present.[4] Her artistic style of layering paint evokes a metaphorical retelling and reimagination of Brazil's history in relation to Portugal and Europe.[5]

Cultural anthropology, or the process of absorbing and incorporating foreign influence into native Brazilian culture, inspires much of Varejão’s work.[6] This movement is evident throughout Brazil’s history into the present and the dichotomy of diversity and unity is a common theme amongst contemporary Brazilian artists.[7] In Varejão’s works, she examines this theme within the contexts of race, body, identity, and the effects of colonialism.[8]

Media[]

Drawing upon tensions surrounding race and ethnicity in Brazil, Varejão uses installation, oil painting, and drawing to comment on the perception of race in Brazil in the twenty-first century.[9] She often starts with a canvas, adding materials such as porcelain and ceramics.[10] In her work entitled Polvo, exhibited at Lehman Maupin in 2014, Varejão combines color theory and casta (a social theory that influenced European paintings of Brazil’s conquest), to examine the norm of defining race in terms of skin color.[11] The series of nearly identical self-portraits forming the bulk of the work were displayed with individualized titles[12] that explained the portraits’ only differences: the titles were generated by the 1976 Brazilian census, which asked Brazilians for the first time to give their definitions of their own skin tone; the responses ranged from branquinha, “snow-white,” to morenão, roughly “big black dude.” [13] Varejão provided the entranceway mural Cores Polvo in 2019 as a piece commissioned by Sesc Guarulhos, which dialogues with the 1976 Brazilian census on race and identity.[14]

Many of Varejão's works appropriate the use of azulejos, traditional Portuguese blue tiles, and maps to comment on colonial legacies in Brazil. Employment of azulejos in Brazilian art is both transcultural and transmedial, directly linking Portugal's historical colonial influence to aspects of contemporary Brazilian society.[15] The piece Proposal for a Catechesis: Part I Diptych: Death and Dismemberment (1993), for example, incorporates azulejos to evoke anthropophagy, a style of cultural cannibalism that was fundamental to the Brazilian modernist movement.[16] Explicit references to artistic takes on anthropophagy are depicted in the series Tongues and Incisions (1997-2003) and Jerked Beef Ruins (2000-2004), among others, which draw attention to the tongue as a symbol for taste (cannibalism) and site of speech to critique colonial history.[17] Varejão's use of skin-tone color pallettes and visceral textured painting techniques evokes the body and the mark of historical violence on it even when no body is explicitly portrayed.[18]

Works[]

Selected works[]

Several of Varejão’s sculptural installations, including “Linda da Lapa”, “Folds”, and “Ruina de Charque - Nova Capela (Nova Capela Jerked-Beef Ruin),”[19] juxtapose structural uniformity and stability against human destruction.[20] These artworks consist of bisected azulejos-covered walls filled with human organs. Using these images, Varejão comments on postcolonial Brazilian social structure and implies that colonially influenced order is built upon human destruction and violence.[21][22]

Varejão created art that was on the exterior of the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, a temporary structure in which the swimming events of the 2016 Summer Olympics were held.[23]

Collections[]

One of the artist's largest projects to date recently opened at Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brazil - a specially commissioned pavilion designed in collaboration with architect Rodrigeo Cervino Lopez.[24] Her work is included in numerous collections worldwide, some of which are the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, among others.

Art market[]

Varejão is represented by the Gagosian Gallery in the US, the Victoria Miro Gallery in the UK, and the Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel in Brazil. She holds the auction record for a Brazilian artist with a $1.8 million sale of Wall With Incisions a la Fontana at Christie's in February 2011.[25]

Exhibits[]

The Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim in Brazil opened in 2008 and includes a pavilion dedicated to her work and built by her then husband, collector Bernardo Paz. She was included in the "Brazil: Body and Soul" exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2001, as well as in the MoMA QNS exhibition "Tempo", where she filled an entire room with the wall-based installation Azulejões (Big Blue Tiles). Her work has also been included in the Venice Biennale and Biennale of Sydney. She had solo exhibitions at Lehmann Maupin (2011 forthcoming, 2009,[26] 2003, 1999) in New York, Soledad Lorenzo (2011 forthcoming, 2002, 1998) in Madrid, Victoria Miro Gallery (2011 forthcoming, 2002) in London, Galeria Fortes Vilaca (2009, 2005) in São Paulo, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (2007) in Tokyo and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (2005) in Paris.

List of works[]

[27]

Paintings by series

  • Plates, 2009-2011
  • Saunas and Baths, 2003-2009
  • Jerked Beef Ruins, 2000-2004
  • Seas and Tiles, 1991-2004
  • Tongues and Incisions, 1997-2003
  • Irezumis, 1994-1997
  • Academics, 1995-1999
  • Proposal for a Catechesis, 1993-1997
  • Terra Incognita, 1992-2004
  • Baroque, 1987-1988

Drawings

  • The Seducer, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • The Obscene, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • The Guest, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • The Specialist, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • Divine Diva, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • The Wicked, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • Mme. F., 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • Mrs. White, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • The Host, 2009, graphite on paper, 70x100cm
  • The Voyeur, 2009, graphite and watercolor on paper, 70x92cm
  • The Obsessive, 2007, graphite on paper, 42x29.7cm
  • J'aime Baden, 2004, graphite on paper, 29.7x21cm
  • The Mystic, 2004, graphite on paper, 51x37.5cm
  • Chaque Jour Est un Jour de Fete, 2004, graphite on paper, 29.7x21cm
  • The Diva, 2004, graphite on paper, 51x37.5cm
  • Rogue, 2004, graphite on paper, 29.7x21cm
  • Sauna, 2003, graphite on paper, 55x77cm
  • Virtual Ambient-graphite, 2002, graphite on paper, 50x57cm
  • Garden of Delights, 1994, ink on paper, 32x43.5cm

Photographs

  • Elegia Mineira, 2007, backlight, 125x163cm
  • Lukacs Bath, 2005, digital photograph, 50x66cm
  • Palatinus Lido Bath, 2005, digital photograph, 50x66cm
  • Szechenyi, 2005, digital photograph, 26.7x35cm
  • Melee de Guerriers Nus - Redux, 2005, digital photograph, variable dimensions
  • Contingent, 2000, photograph, 28x48.5cm
  • Dadivosa, 1999, digital photograph, 24x21.5cm
  • Happiness, 1999, backlight, 84.5x139x13.5cm
  • Anything, 1998, c-print, 56x37.5cm
  • Cannibal and Nostalgic, 1998, digital photograph, 107x83cm

Special Projects

  • Scenography of Erwartung, opera by Shoenberg, Grande Teatro do Palacio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, 2009
  • Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporanea, pavilion of permanent show, 2008
  • Scenography of Idomeneu, opera by Mozart, Theatro Municipal de Rio De Janeiro, 2006
  • Panacea Phantastica, silk-screen printing on tiles, variable dimensions, Panorama de Arte Brasiliera, MAM Sao-Paulo, 2003

Awards[]

  • 2008, Chevalier des Arts et Lettres Medal, French Ministry of Culture
  • 2011, The Order of Cultural Merit, Cultural Ministry of Brazil
  • 2012, Grande Prêmio da Crítica, Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte[28]
  • 2013, Mario Pedrosa Award, Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte[29]

References[]

  1. ^ "Front Matter". Art on Paper. 9 (3). 2005. JSTOR 24556225.
  2. ^ Hara, Toshio, "Adriana Varejao", Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007
  3. ^ Johnson, Ken, "Adriana Varejao at Lehmann Maupin," New York Times, January 2000.
  4. ^ Carvajal, R., "Travel Chronicles: The Work of Adriana Varejao," New Histories, Boston, 1996, p. 168-169.
  5. ^ Harrison, Marguerite Itamar (2008). "Envisioning the Body Politic through Dense Layers of Paint: The Art of Adriana Varejão". Chasqui. 37 (1): 66–78. JSTOR 29742234.
  6. ^ Susan Fisher Sterling. "Varejão, Adriana". Oxford Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  7. ^ Tejo, Cristiana. "NEW BRAZILIAN ART". Flash Art. Flash Art. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  8. ^ Benschop, Jurriaan. "Adriana Varejão". ARTFORUM. ARTFORUM. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  9. ^ "Adriana Varejão". The Guggenheim. The Guggenheim. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  10. ^ Grosenick, Uta (2005). Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century. Taschen. ISBN 9783822858547.
  11. ^ Pechman, Alexandra. "'Adriana Varejão: Polvo' at Lehmann Maupin". ARTNEWS. ARTNEWS. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  12. ^ "Adriana Varejão". Lehmann Maupin. Lehmann Maupin. Archived from the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  13. ^ Johnson, Reed. "Adriana Varejão's Colorful Take on Brazil's Race Problems". The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  14. ^ "Announcements | News". Gagosian. 2019-06-28. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  15. ^ Buono, Amy J. (2015). "Historicity, Achronicity, and the Materiality of Cultures in Colonial Brazil". Getty Research Journal. 7 (7): 19–34. doi:10.1086/680732. JSTOR 10.1086/680732. S2CID 191599086.
  16. ^ Bastos, Flavia M. C. (2006). "'Tupy or Not Tupy?' Examining Hybridity in Contemporary Brazilian Art". Studies in Art Education. 47 (2): 102–117. doi:10.1080/00393541.2006.11650488. JSTOR 3497103. S2CID 141784216.
  17. ^ de Barros, Stella Teixeira (2011). "Adriana Varejão: The Presence of Painting". In Pedrosa, Adriano (ed.). ArtNexus Brasil en Colombia (PDF). Arte en Colombia SAS. pp. 112–117. ISBN 978-958-57191-0-1. OCLC 942466533.
  18. ^ Storr, Robert (2012). "The Carioca & the Paulista". Art in America. 100 (8): 104–108.
  19. ^ "Adriana Varejao". Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  20. ^ "Adriana Varejao's Painfully Clean Tiled Mythologies". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  21. ^ "Adriana Varejão". Artnet. Artnet. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  22. ^ Laudanno, Claudia; Olmo, Santiago B. "Adriana Varejao". ArtNexus. ArtNexus. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  23. ^ "Sustainable Olympic aquatics stadium unveiled ready for Rio 2016 Games". 5 August 2016. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  24. ^ Adriana Varejão Victoria Miro Gallery, London.
  25. ^ Katya Kazakina and Juan Pablo Spinetto (August 28, 2012), Gagosian Plans $130 Million Package for Brazil Art Fair Archived March 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Businessweek.
  26. ^ Ayers, Robert. Adriana Varejao at Lehmann Maupin ARTnews. October, 2009.
  27. ^ Varejao, Adriana. "Adriana Varejao". Archived from the original on 2010-03-16. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  28. ^ "Adriana Varejão - Artists - Lehmann Maupin". www.lehmannmaupin.com. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  29. ^ "ABCA divulga prêmios para críticos e artistas - Cultura". Estadão (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-12-17.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""