The Hispanic Society Museum & Library presents Adriana Varejão: Don’t Forget, We Come From the Tropics, an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by leading Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão. The show features new paintings from Varejão’s acclaimed Plate series and a site-specific outdoor sculptural intervention.
The new works reflect on the Amazonian rainforest as a vital nexus of ecology, art, and culture. Stemming from Varejão’s participation in the inaugural Bienal das Amazônias (2023), they also mark two decades since the artist began conducting research with the Yanomami people in the Amazon basin. The exhibition debuts the latest additions to Varejão’s celebrated Plate series, inspired by historic Palissy ceramics. These large-scale fiberglass tondos boast protruding three-dimensional elements which are hand-sculpted and painted in oil. The front of each plate is adorned with exuberant imagery of Amazonian flora and fauna, while the reverse evokes designs from historic ceramics from the Hispanic Society’s collection and beyond, including Spanish Valenciana, Ottoman Iznik, Ming Dynasty Hongzhi porcelain, and pre-Columbian Amazonian Marajoarapottery.
In front of the museum, Varejão activates the institution’s 1927 equestrian statue of El Cid by Anna Hyatt Huntington with a monumental sculptural intervention. In this new site-specific work, a vibrantly painted fiberglass sucuri (Amazonian anaconda) coils around the bronze warrior, confronting the statue’s symbolism of imperialism, masculinity, and man’s domination of nature.
In addition to producing new works, Varejão has curated a selection of historic ceramic plates from the Hispanic Society’s collection to display alongside her Plate series. By placing these ceramics in conversation with her monumental paintings, she raises provocative questions about the hierarchies of aesthetics. Historically, ceramics have been relegated to “craft” or “decorative arts,” secondary to painting and sculpture. Varejão challenges these assumptions, creating sculptural paintings inspired by ceramics from the past. Her works blur these boundaries, demonstrating how ceramics, with their evolutive essence and origins in every culture, can engage with contemporary issues and enrich our understanding of art.
The exhibition’s title, Don’t Forget, We Come From the Tropics, is both a tribute to the natural and cultural vitality of Brazil and an homage to one of its distinguished artists, Maria Martins, who famously declared, “Don’t forget, I come from the Tropics.” This embrace of tropical and Baroque aesthetics celebrates the vibrancy of the Latin American world.
Who is Adriana Varejão
Adriana Varejão is one of the most celebrated contemporary Brazilian artists.
The artist was born in Rio de Janeiro in November 1964 but spent much of her childhood in Brasília.
In 1981, she enrolled in an engineering course but dropped out the following year.
In 1983, Adriana took her first steps in the world of visual arts. She soon set up her first studio in Rio de Janeiro.
Two years later, she traveled to New York, where she came into contact with great painters who influenced her work.
In 1986, she won the first of many awards – the Acquisition Award at the 9th National Visual Arts Salon of Funarte (RJ).
In 1988, already recognized in Brazil, she participated in the Brasil Já exhibition, held at the Morsbroich Museum in Leverkusen, Germany, and began to gain international recognition.
Adriana Varejão’s pieces can be found in important museums such as the Tate Modern (London), the Guggenheim (New York) and Tokyo’s Hara Museum.
In Brazil, her most famous pieces are on display at the Inhotim Center for Contemporary Art, in Minas Gerais.
Where: The Hispanic Museum & Library
When: March 27th- June 22nd, 2025
More info: https://hispanicsociety.org
Source: The Hispanic Museum & Library