RIP: Adriana Varejão’s “Two Paintings and Ten Drawings” at Lehmann Maupin

By: Jennifer Schwartz

 

            At 36, Adriana Varejão is fairly young, considering her impressive body of work. One might remember her for her striking bloody tile paintings she calls her Tongues and incision series, for which she enjoyed critical acclaim.  In this series she reconstructs tile walls that have been destroyed, exposing ambiguous fleshy interiors   These works are, at first glance, gruesome, then after further inspection, enticing and beautiful.  In Varejão's recent exhibit at Lehmann Maupin, she continues to utilize tiles as her medium, but in an entirely different way from the previous works.  She no longer relies on gimmicky tactics of gruesome shock and awe or baroque stylization to catch the viewers attention (which I loved, by the way), instead she creates interior spaces that look like your typical Turkish bath.  The show consists of about a dozen paintings and drawings of whimsical spaces, where the play of light gently falls across starkly geometrical, yet simultaneously impossible spaces.  To look at these images is to walk through a space that could never exist.

One might argue that Varejão's paintings, although technically proficient, are not that hard to execute.  What makes them unique is that no one else took the time to conceive these magical places with such sensitivity.  The Shining, 2009 at 220 inches in length, is particularly impressive.  The golden light that casts a beam across the space draws you in.  The channels that run across the floor  bring up questions of what this space is really for. 

 

 

O Iluminado (The Shining), 2009, oil on linen, 90.55 x 220.47 inches, 230 x 560 cm.

 Image taken from retile.com

 

          In all of the images in this show, Varejão exhibits a dedication to scientific perspective and geometry.  Her diligence in making the space three dimensional and believable is astounding.  I find it especially interesting when she depicts her perfect scientific perspective through water.  The wavy lines through thin blue washes of color look almost more real than their straight counterparts.  The monochrome palate of the paintings also adds an otherworldliness that is calming.

Varejão seems to avoid depicting figures in almost all of her work. She did a double self-portrait in 1999, demonstrating a keen understanding of the figure, but chooses not to put the figure directly in her work that often.  The body is often hinted at, as in the bloody tiles, but rarely ever painted.  In the Sauna series, for example, in a work entitled The Guest, there is a pool of blood on a tile floor.  I seem to cling to moments like this, searching for a human connection in Varejão’s work.  Her spaces seem lonely and desolate, causing critics to claim that her work is about war-torn South American countries. I’m not sure if I agree with the critics, and in this case, I am not sure what the blood on the sauna floor is supposed to stand for, but whatever the interpretation, as an artist, I find Varejão’s work inspiring.

 

Lehmann Maupin Gallery

540 West 26 Street

Take the A, C or E train to 23^rd Street and/or the M23 bus to 23^rd Street and 11^th Avenue

Gallery Summer Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5:30pm

Gallery Website: www.lehmannmaupin.com