Adriana Varejão's 'Suturas, fissuras, ruínas' surveys career from 1985 to present at Pinacoteca de São Paulo

Adriana Varejão's exhibition 'Suturas, fissuras, ruínas' at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo offers a comprehensive overview of her career from 1985 to the present. Curated by Jochen Volz, the museum's director-general, the show features over 60 works, including rarely seen pieces in Brazil that were sold abroad shortly after creation. The exhibition explores Varejão's recurring examination of Brazilian visual history, her dialogues with European iconographic traditions, and her engagement with Western artistic conventions. Key works include 'Azulejos' (1988), her first piece referencing Portuguese tile panels found in Salvador's Convento de São Francisco, and five large-scale three-dimensional paintings from her recent 'Ruínas de charque' series, including 'Ruína Brasilis' (2021) donated to the Pinacoteca. The artist's work consistently features cracks, sutures, and visceral elements that reference the violence of Brazil's colonial history and engage with contemporary national art themes. Varejão describes her approach as based on 'multiple and varied versions of history, sometimes imagined, sometimes silenced.' The exhibition runs from March 26 to August 1, 2022, at the Pinacoteca's Edifício Pinacoteca Luz location in São Paulo.