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.
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Adriana Varejão, Cores Polvo, 2019 © Adriana Varejão
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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
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.
Adriana Varejão (New York: Rizzoli Electa, in association with Gagosian, 2022)
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
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