The Art of Adriana Varejão Surrounds a Rio Olympics Aquatics Stadium
The Olympic Aquatics Stadium will be an attraction for culture lovers, as it is enveloped by a work of art by celebrated Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão. Sixty-six panels, each 27 metres high, reproduce Celacanto Provoca Maremoto, an installation displayed at the famous Inhotim Institute in Minas Gerais. It uses Portuguese tiling and a baroque style to mix imagery of the sea and angels. The panels are anti-UV treated to help regulate the building's temperature.
The work of art uses Portuguese tile images to tell the story of Brazil’s colonial history (Inhotim/Adriana Varejão)
The Lehmann-Maupin Gallery in New York City describes Varejão's work thusly:
Regarded as one of Brazil's most accomplished contemporary artists, Varejão often references cultural and historic research through an intense investigation into anthropology, colonial trade, demography, and racial identity. She is especially influenced by theories of mestizaje (a term for the mixing of ancestries) and cultural anthropophagy — as proposed by the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade, who urged artists to "cannibalize," rather than reject, cultural components of their country’s colonizers. The idea of empowering oppressed peoples through the assimilation of outside influences is reinforced through Varejão's mixture of global artistic mediums and styles. Her approach has resulted in a diverse body of work that can be both humorous and grotesque in its assessment of humankind’s history of coexistence.
This exhibition serves as a continuation of the artist's 2015 solo exhibition at the Dallas Contemporary, in which Varejão looked to art history — both Native American as well as within the Western canon — for inspiration, producing a tableau that reinterprets the Eurocentric perspective of the New World. In viewing the Mimbres and Kindred Spirits series together, Varejão demonstrates how Native American approaches to line, color, and shape influenced 20th century art, especially Minimalism. Both bodies of work weave together stories of distinct artistic traditions to emphasize the constant evolution and exchange of influences that shape culture and identity.
Pages: 1 · 2
More Articles
- Explore the Royal Collection and an Exhibition, Masterpieces From Buckingham Palace
- Jill Norgren Reviews a New Inspector Gamache Mystery: All the Devils Are Here
- The Autobiography of a Garden at The Huntington, a Joy for Viewers and Gardeners
- What? You Have Nothing to Do? Explore Some Museums Collections Online
- FactCheck Post: The Facts on Trump’s Travel Restrictions: "We Don't Have a Travel Ban; We Have a Travel Band-Aid Right Now"
- Heard of the Novel Corona Virus Before? The New England Journal of Medicine's Free Reading Lists and the W.H.O.'s Statement
- Horse, Horse, Tiger, Tiger; It's the Tone of the Character That Makes the Word
- Rumors Of War by Kehinde Wiley: Monuments and Their Role in Perpetuating Incomplete Histories and Inequality
- Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience: Linda Gass at the Museum of Craft and Design
- Elaine Soloway's Hometown Rookie: Synchronized Flopping, Guest Towels And Friends - Floors, Doors or Blocks Away