Adriana Varejão’s work is openly political and maintains an ongoing dialog with colonial and post-colonial history in Brazil. Based on a cultural repertoire ranging from the Brazilian baroque and eighteenth-century travel literature. Varejão appropriates the artificiality, trompe l’oeil and anamorphosis of the baroque, employing simulation and juxtaposition tactics to fool the senses. Her interest in the azulejo and its legacy as a metaphor of cultural miscegenation is a central element in her work. Her paintings acquire a voluminous density thanks to the artist’s attention to different depths, craquelure, cuts and fissures introduced in the surfaces, moving beyond the plane into the surrounding space.
Her recent solo exhibitions include Adriana Varejão: Suturas, fissuras, ruínas, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); Talavera, Gagosian, New York, USA (2021); Por uma retórica canibal, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de Salvador, Salvador; MAMAM — Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães, Recife, Brazil (2019); Otros Cuerpos Detrás, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2018) e; Paula Rego e Adriana Varejão, Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2017). The artist has also participated in the group shows, Histórias Brasileiras, MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); Brasilidade Pós-Modernismo, CCBB – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro; São Paulo; Brasília; Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2021) Bustes de Femmes: Paris 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Gagosian, Paris, France (2020); Interiorities, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2019) and Nous les Arbres, Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, Paris, France (2019).
Varejão’s work is incliuded in important public collections including Coleção Berardo, Museu de Arte Moderna de Sintra, Portugal; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA; Fondation Cartier Pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Fundação Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Instituto Inhotim, Minas Gerais, Brazil, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Tate Modern, London, UK; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA and The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA.