Adriana Varejao

Born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she lives and works.

Adriana Varejão; " Azul Branca em Carne Viva", 2002
Oil on canvas, polyurethane on aluminium, wood support
270 x 200 x 40 cm
Photo: Vicente de Mello /Galleria Soledad Lorenzo, Madrid
Collection Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
© Adriana Varejão

With their massive presence and weight, Varejão’s paintings border on sculpture. The fundamental chords of her artistic work range from the deeply private and personal to the historically universal, from reflections on the body and the blood to critical examinations of archaeology and race, colonial history and cannibalistic legends of sacrifice.

The work ”Azul Branca em Carne Viva” (Blue, White, and Living Flesh, 2002) depicts a torn and cracked section of a wall. It also contains a mixture of the two surfaces the artist most often makes use of: tile and flesh.

Previously, Varejão has been deeply involved with the complex cultural history of Brazil, its mixture of native population and colonizers, the history of Portugal and colonial traces of Africa and Asia. But in this work the complicated, heavily ornamented mosaic has been replaced with tiles from a slaughter-house, made to withstand stains and to be easily cleansed with water. The cool wall surface splits in an open wound, in furious bloody splendour.