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Adriana Varejão, Mucura, 2023 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Vicente de Mello

Exhibition

Adriana Varejão in
Bienal das Amazônias

August 4–November 5, 2023
Various locations in Belém, Brazil
www.bienalamazonias.com.br

The inaugural Bienal das Amazônias brings contemporary art to the unique surroundings of Belém, in the northern state of Pará in Brazil. It aims to conceive artistic, educational, and socio-environmental actions and develop Pan-Amazonian audiences. Seeking to reflect how art is made in the region without resorting to stereotypes, the biennial includes work by more than 120 artists and collectives from eight countries surrounding the Amazon. Work by Adriana Varejão is included.

Adriana Varejão, Mucura, 2023 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Vicente de Mello

Adriana Varejão (New York: Rizzoli Electa, in association with Gagosian, 2022)

Talk and Book Signing

Adriana Varejão
Louise Neri

Thursday, November 17, 2022, 6pm
Rizzoli Bookstore, New York
www.rizzolibookstore.com

Adriana Varejão will be in conversation with Gagosian director Louise Neri to celebrate the publication of the artist’s first English-language monograph, published by Rizzoli Electa, in association with Gagosian. Edited by Neri, the fully illustrated volume explores Varejao’s diverse body of work in depth and organizes her oeuvre into several conceptual groupings: “Cartographies,” “Antropofagia,” “Mestizaje,” “Baroque,” “Sauna and Baths,” and “Azulejo.” After the talk, Varejão will sign copies of the book, which will be available to purchase at the event.

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Adriana Varejão (New York: Rizzoli Electa, in association with Gagosian, 2022)

Still from Bacurau (2019), directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho

Screening

Adriana Varejão Selects

October 21–30, 2022
Metrograph, New York
metrograph.com

Adriana Varejão has curated a selection of films as part of a series copresented by Gagosian and Metrograph in the theater and online. The program will feature cinema exploring themes of eroticism, excess, and science-fiction fatalism.

Varejão explains: “With these screenings, I’m taking a poetic approach, bringing together films that have opened doors in my art. . . . These aspects are present in my own art in the representations of flesh, in the imagined environments, in the historical parodies. The program also includes more recent remarkable Brazilian productions that resonate with my own thinking.”

Still from Bacurau (2019), directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho

Left: Adriana Varejão. Photo: Vicente de Mello. Right: Luisa Duarte

In Conversation

Adriana Varejão
Luisa Duarte

Thursday, June 17, 2021, 1pm edt

Join Gagosian for a dialogue between Adriana Varejão and Brazilian critic and curator Luisa Duarte on the occasion of Varejão’s exhibition Talavera, on view at Gagosian, New York, through June 26. The pair will discuss Varejão’s unique approach to painting in the context of Latin American history, culture, and politics. Duarte’s new essay on Varejão’s oeuvre, “For a Poetics of Difference,” appears in the Summer issue of the Gagosian Quarterly, and she curated the 2019 survey exhibition Adriana Varejão: Por uma retórica canibal, presented in both Salvador and Recife, Brazil. Organized in partnership with Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, the conversation will be conducted in Portuguese and streamed online with English subtitles. This is the first of two events presented in conjunction with the exhibition, hosted over the course of two consecutive days.

Left: Adriana Varejão. Photo: Vicente de Mello. Right: Luisa Duarte

Left: Adriana Varejão. Photo: Vicente de Mello. Right: Pedro Alonzo. Photo: René Castelán Foglia

In Conversation

Adriana Varejão
Pedro Alonzo

Friday, June 18, 2021, 1pm edt

Join Gagosian for a walkthrough of the exhibition Adriana Varejão: Talavera at Gagosian, New York, led by the artist together with Mexican curator Pedro Alonzo. In 2017, Varejão and Alonzo made a research trip to Mexico to study Talavera poblana, the richly diverse ceramic tradition that inspired the current exhibition. While guiding viewers through the exhibition, the pair will recount their experiences and the many references—from Indigenous and pre-Hispanic to colonial and modernist—for this body of work, revealing some of the potent narratives inherent in material culture, global trade, art history, and the corresponding power dynamics in Mexico and Brazil. This is the second of two events presented in conjunction with the exhibition, hosted over the course of two consecutive days.

Left: Adriana Varejão. Photo: Vicente de Mello. Right: Pedro Alonzo. Photo: René Castelán Foglia

Adriana Varejão: Interiors (New York: Gagosian, 2017)

Online Reading

Adriana Varejão
Interiors

Adriana Varejão: Interiors is available for online reading from February 24 through March 25 as part of Artist Spotlight: Adriana Varejão. Published on the occasion of the artist’s 2017 exhibition Interiors at Gagosian, Beverly Hills, and her 2016–17 exhibition Azulejão at Gagosian, Rome, this catalogue brings together images of the paintings and sculptures presented in these shows, as well as views of her multichannel video installation Transbarroco (2014), shown in both cities at the time of these consecutive exhibitions. The book features a preface by Gagosian director Louise Neri, an essay by scholar Luiz Camillo Osorio, and texts by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo.

Adriana Varejão: Interiors (New York: Gagosian, 2017)

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Announcements

Adriana Varejão, Cores Polvo, 2019 © Adriana Varejão

Commission

Adriana Varejão
Cores Polvo

Adriana Varejão was commissioned by the community center SESC Guarulhos in Brazil to create a mural for the center’s entrance area. In the seven giant abstract color wheels that comprise Cores Polvo (2019), Varejão uses the abundant nuances of skin tone to address the complex issues of race and identity. The skin-tone shades featured in the motifs were inspired by a 1976 Brazilian government survey in which ordinary citizens were invited to describe their own skin tones in terms meant to replace the existing five previously established characterizations.

Adriana Varejão, Cores Polvo, 2019 © Adriana Varejão

Photo: Christian Gaul

Award

Adriana Varejão
Prêmio Mario Pedrosa

Adriana Varejão has been awarded the 2012 Prêmio Mario Pedrosa, bestowed by the Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte (ABCA) in May 2013 for her contribution to cultural developments in Brazil. ABCA’s mission is to promote exchange between its members and researchers working in the areas of art history, theory, and criticism, encouraging interdisciplinary studies and contributing to the sphere of visual arts and to the fields of education, science, and culture.

Photo: Christian Gaul

Adriana Varejão at Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Rosário, Cachoeira, Brazil, 2007. Artwork © Adriana Varejão

Award

Adriana Varejão
Cultural Merit Order

Adriana Varejão has been awarded the 2011 Cultural Merit Order Award in recognition of her contributions to arts and culture in Brazil on both national and international levels. Varejão will formally receive the award from the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, at a ceremony on November 9, 2011, at the Teatro de Santa Isabel in Recife.

Adriana Varejão at Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Rosário, Cachoeira, Brazil, 2007. Artwork © Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejão, Celacanto Provoca Maremoto, 2004–08, installation view, Galeria Adriana Varejão, Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Brazil © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

Honor

Adriana Varejão
Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Adriana Varejão was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication in 2008, on the occasion of the completion of the Galeria Adriana Varejão at Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea in Brumadinho, Brazil. Established in 1957, this order is intended to honor those who have distinguished themselves through their significant contributions to the arts and literature in France and around the world.

Adriana Varejão, Celacanto Provoca Maremoto, 2004–08, installation view, Galeria Adriana Varejão, Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Brazil © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

Galeria Adriana Varejão, Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Brazil. Artwork © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

Permanent Installation

Galeria Adriana Varejão
Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Brazil

Built into a hillside to reflect the site’s original topography, the Galeria Adriana Varejão pavilion at Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea in Brumadinho, Brazil, was completed in March 2008 and houses six major works by Adriana Varejão, four created specifically for the structure. The centerpiece, Celacanto Provoca Maremoto (2004–08), is a mural covering four walls, made up of 184 painted canvas panels—white-and-blue squares that re-create original tiles the artist photographed, depicting angels, wings, and other decorative motifs, as well as the texture of cracked tiles. Founded by Bernardo Paz, the open-air museum is made up of multiple permanent pavilions placed throughout a 35-hectare (86.5-acre) park.

Galeria Adriana Varejão, Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Brazil. Artwork © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

Museum Exhibitions

Adriana Varejão, Cadernos de viagem: Yãkoana, 2003 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Patrick Grie

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Adriana Varejão in
Siamo Foresta

June 22–October 29, 2023
Triennale di Milano, Milan
triennale.org

This exhibition, whose title translates to We Are Forest, is a partnership between the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, and the Triennale di Milano, and is held in Milan. The show draws its inspiration from an aesthetic and political vision of the forest as an egalitarian multiverse of living beings—both human and nonhuman. It offers an allegory of a possible world beyond our own, and stages an encounter between thinkers and defenders of the forest, Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. Work by Adriana Varejão is included.

Adriana Varejão, Cadernos de viagem: Yãkoana, 2003 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Patrick Grie

Installation view, Adriana Varejão: Suturas, fissuras, ruínas, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, March 26–August 1, 2022. Artwork © Adriana Varejão

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Adriana Varejão
Suturas, fissuras, ruínas

March 26–August 1, 2022
Pinacoteca de São Paulo
pinacoteca.org.br

This retrospective, whose title translates to Sutures, Fissures, Ruins, is the most comprehensive solo exhibition of Adriana Varejão’s work to date. Curated by Jochen Volz, director of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, it gathers together more than sixty works in two and three dimensions made between 1985 and 2022. From her position as both a postcolonial subject and a contemporary painter, Varejão brings an insistent critical scrutiny to bear on the enduring impact of European history, its iconography, and artistic conventions. The exhibition highlights the subversive strategies and their symptoms that have underscored Varejão’s art practice since her Baroque canvases of the early 1990s.

Installation view, Adriana Varejão: Suturas, fissuras, ruínas, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, March 26–August 1, 2022. Artwork © Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejão, Ruína Brasilis (Brasilis Ruin), 2021 © Adriana Varejão

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Adriana Varejão in
Composições para tempos insurgentes

October 9, 2021–May 8, 2022
Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
mam.rio

This exhibition, whose title translates to Compositions for Insurgent Times, highlights a multigenerational group of artists who strategically and poetically address the relationship between nature and culture in their work. The exhibition aims to prompt discussions about sustainable urban architecture, questions of diversity and accessibility, and Afro-Brazilian and Western traditions brought together to exercise new ways of building and relating to the world. Work by Adriana Varejão is included.

Adriana Varejão, Ruína Brasilis (Brasilis Ruin), 2021 © Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejão, Ruina de Charque Lapa, 2001, installation view, NEON, Athens © Adriana Varejão

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Portals

June 11–December 31, 2021
NEON, Athens
neon.org.gr

Portals brings together fifty-nine artists from twenty-seven countries in the newly renovated spaces of the former Public Tobacco Factory, now the Hellenic Parliament Library and Printing House. Inspired by writer Arundhati Roy’s conception of the COVID-19 pandemic as a “portal, a gateway between one world and the next,” the exhibition aims to investigate the new reality revealed through the prism of change and disruption. Work by Ed Ruscha and Adriana Varejão is included.

Adriana Varejão, Ruina de Charque Lapa, 2001, installation view, NEON, Athens © Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejão, Ruína Modernista II, 2018 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Ortega

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Adriana Varejão in
Casa Carioca

October 1, 2020–August 2, 2021
Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro
museudeartedorio.org.br

This exhibition, initially presented online due to the global health crisis, brings together approximately eight hundred works around themes related to the home and life in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. It was conceived as part of the cultural program for the 27th World Congress of the International Union of Architects, which will be held in Brazil for the first time in July 2021. Work by Adriana Varejão is included.

Adriana Varejão, Ruína Modernista II, 2018 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Ortega

Adriana Varejão, Horto Jerked-Beef Ruin (diptych), 2001 © Adriana Varejão

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Time for Outrage!
Art in Times of Social Anger

October 29, 2020–January 10, 2021
Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Germany
www.kunstpalast.de

Based on a 2010 manifesto of the same title by former French resistance fighter Stéphane Hessel, the exhibition Time for Outrage! brought together more than forty international artists who visualize, reflect on, and comment on various facets of anger and rage in our society during this era of political turmoil and democratic crisis. Work by Taryn Simon and Adriana Varejão was included.

Adriana Varejão, Horto Jerked-Beef Ruin (diptych), 2001 © Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejão, Map of Lopo Homem II, 1992–2004 © Adriana Varejão

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Adriana Varejão in
An Exhibition with Works By . . .

January 19–August 23, 2020
Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands
www.wdw.nl

Focusing on works made in the medium of ceramic, this exhibition explored how national identities can be forged through aesthetics. Considering the immigration of forms, it fostered a dialogue about global trade and about the role played by colonial enterprises and cultural influence. Work by Adriana Varejão was included.

Adriana Varejão, Map of Lopo Homem II, 1992–2004 © Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejão, Parede com Incisões à la Fontana—Horizontal (Wall with Incisions à la Fontana—Horizontal), 2009–11, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Jaime Acioli

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Adriana Varejão in
Home Is a Foreign Place

April 9, 2019–June 21, 2020
Met Breuer, New York
www.metmuseum.org

This exhibition featured a diverse group of paintings, sculptures, installations, and videos made between 1944 and 2016 that explored artistic engagements with language, architecture, space, politics, and media. The thematic installation asked viewers to reconsider what it means to make a home in the world, whether by chance, necessity, or choice. Work by Adriana Varejão was included.

Adriana Varejão, Parede com Incisões à la Fontana—Horizontal (Wall with Incisions à la Fontana—Horizontal), 2009–11, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Jaime Acioli

Adriana Varejão, Ruína de Charque - Nova Capela (Nova Capela Jerked-Beef Ruin), 2003 (detail) © Adriana Varejão

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Adriana Varejão in
Innenleben / Interiorities

November 29, 2019–March 29, 2020
Haus der Kunst, Munich
hausderkunst.de

Based on the art historical genre of interior painting, this exhibition united four artists who explore the relationship between interior and exterior space—Adriana Varejão, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Leonor Antunes, and Henrike Nauman. Their works reveal the potential of the interior, whether as an imaginary or a real setting, as metaphor or as concrete site for intimate social actions, to reflect and alter the social and political zeitgeist.

Adriana Varejão, Ruína de Charque - Nova Capela (Nova Capela Jerked-Beef Ruin), 2003 (detail) © Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejão, Cadernos de viagem: Yãkoana, 2003 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Patrick Grie

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Nous les arbres

July 12, 2019–January 5, 2020
Fondation Cartier, Paris
www.fondationcartier.com

Organized around several large ensembles of works, this exhibition, whose title translates to We, the Trees, gives voice to numerous figures who have developed a strong, intimate link with trees, thereby revealing the beauty and biological wealth of these great protagonists of the living world, threatened today with large-scale deforestation. Work by Giuseppe Penone and Adriana Varejão is included.

Adriana Varejão, Cadernos de viagem: Yãkoana, 2003 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Patrick Grie

Adriana Varejão, Testemunhas oculares X, Y e Z, 1997 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Ortega

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Adriana Varejão
Otros cuerpos detrás

August 24, 2019–January 5, 2020
Museo Tamayo, Mexico City
www.museotamayo.org

This show, whose title translates to Other Bodies Behind, explores the lines of research that Adriana Varejão has developed in her artistic practice since the 1990s, bringing together work created over the past thirty years. The exhibition is structured around three different bodies of work—early figurative canvases, a selection from the series Ruínas de Charque (Jerked-Beef Ruins), and recent Polvo paintings.

Adriana Varejão, Testemunhas oculares X, Y e Z, 1997 © Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Ortega

Adriana Varejão, Ruína de Charque–Vigário Geral (Vigário Geral Jerked–Beef Ruin), 2002 (detail), Dallas Museum of Art © Adriana Varejão

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Adriana Varejão in
America Will Be!: Surveying the Contemporary Landscape

April 6–September 15, 2019
Dallas Museum of Art
www.dma.org

Drawing on works from the museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition investigates the ways in which contemporary artists engage with landscapes, broadly defined, exploring how our natural and built environments intersect with our representations of ourselves and our communities. The show aims to delve into how contemporary “landscapes” might better reflect the full diversity of the people who inhabit North and South America. Work by Adriana Varejão is included.

Adriana Varejão, Ruína de Charque–Vigário Geral (Vigário Geral Jerked–Beef Ruin), 2002 (detail), Dallas Museum of Art © Adriana Varejão

See all Museum Exhibitions for Adriana Varejão