Biography
Varela began her career in early 1960s Brazil, where she was born in 1943. In her earliest paintings and sculptures she developed a critical and often ironical appreciation of urban life, which was much influenced by American Pop art and was part of a local movement called Tropicalism. In 1968, Varela moved to Paris and began focusing on the self-reflective representation of Nature, in a series of paintings, photographs and video called “Images”. This research, through which she questioned the ambiguous representation of appearance, fitted in the Figuration narrative wave. It progressively evolved into a geometrical construction of space, which was carried on after she moved to Switzerland in the 1980s. As from 2000, Varela’s paintings shifted towards pop surrealism, while in her installations, she started developing site-specific projects, closely related to the historical places and art collections.
Varela has exhibited internationally for more than three decades in galleries and museums.
