© Adriana Varejão

O Sedutor (The Seducer), 2004


Adriana Varejão
Saunas



The Victoria Miro Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition of new work by Adriana Varejão. Continuing her recent series entitled "Saunas", Varejão will present four major paintings in her second solo exhibition in London.


In the "Sauna" paintings, Varejão explores questions inherent to painting and geometry, with a sensitive use of light and shade to represent simple, contemporary tiled interiors that the artist describes as "psychological ambience". Fine colour gradations enliven the apparent chromatic uniformity of these paintings whilst the grids that constitute these works recall their use in modernist aesthetics. Two paintings from this exhibition "The Seducer", 2004 and "The Diva", 2004 will be included in Varejão's solo exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in February 2005.


Varejão's earlier work dealt with representation, parody and the Baroque idea of illusion and of theatre. Works from her "Jerked Beef Ruin" series, for instance, are like contemporary ruins, paintings that depict fragments of wall and rubble made of flesh and tiles. In these recent works the tiles have become simple, unadorned, abstract and minimalist. Starting from compositions that are virtually created, Varejão expands her themes in subtle but no less complex directions whilst upholding the visual poetics and conceptual impulses of her earlier works.


Born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, where she lives and works, Adriana Varejão is one of Brazil's leading contemporary artists. She has solo exhibitions in 2005 at the Fondation Cartier, Paris and Centro Cultural de Belém, Portugal. She is currently included in The Fifth International Site Santa Fe Biennial, until January 2005. Her work was recently shown in "Brazil: Body and Soul" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York as well as in the MoMAQNS exhibition "Tempo", where she filled an entire room with the wall-based installation, "Azulejões" (Big Blue Tiles). Varejão has exhibited widely internationally, including the Biennale of Sydney, the Venice Biennale, and the São Paolo Biennial as well as solo exhibitions at Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden and the Instituto de Arte Contemporanea, Lisbon.


Exhibition: 14 September - 9 October, 2004
Hours: Tu-Sa 10 am - 6 pm


Victoria Miro Gallery
16 Wharf Road
GB-London N1 7RW
Telephone +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Fax +44 (0) 20 7251 5596
Email info@victoria-miro.com

www.victoria-miro.com