Sophia Vari
“For me, I need to touch and feel the reality of something. So sculpture is more real. It is there, you touch it, you go around it. But painting, drawing is an illusion.”
The brilliant Sophia Vari (1940 – 2023) captivated audiences worldwide with her public art installations in cities like Paris, Florence, New York, Shangai, Monaco, Madrid, Athens, Rome, Istanbul, Sao Paolo, Caracas, and Pietrasanta, just to name a few. Among her many accomplishments include several museum exhibitions and nearly 100 solo shows. (Read More)
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Known for her bronze polychrome sculptures and geometric paintings, Vari is considered a major world-renowned artist. She was born in Greece and grew up in Switzerland with her Greek-Hungarian family. She traveled throughout Europe and officially moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1958, studying forms and their effects on the physical space and viewer surrounding it. She drew influence from various points in art history including Cubism, and ancient cultures like the Cycladic Greeks, Egyptians, and the Pre-Columbian Olmec and Mayans.
Her collages, oils, and watercolors on canvas were a part of her constant research of form and balance. Both striking and lively, she created compositions that play with a sense of space and depth. She painted her artworks with a three-dimensional quality, that attracts viewers to her creations, using soft palettes and delicate techniques to create shadows and volumes, as well as extremely refined textures included old book pages, particular papers, even layers of canvas fabric.
In her exotic and exquisite sculptures, you will find precious materials such as marble, silver, polished bronze with different patinas, and wall-epoxy-sculptures, often in white monochromatic proposals as well as with color hand-painted finishes. Vari exceeded her initial concept of three-dimensionality, eventually creating a stunning and opulent jewelry collection, where she could adorn herself with her artistic creations.
Sophia Vari passed away in 2023 in Monaco.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Important Exhibitions
2023 12 monumental sculptures, Park Avenue, New York, USA
2018 Forms and Contradictions, 16 monumental scultptures, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens, Greece
2017 The Art of Sophia Vari, Art of the World Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
2014 Sophia Vari Sculptures, Paintings, and Jewels, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Andros, Greece
2013 Sophia Vari – Sculptures and Paintings, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
2012 Sophia Vari the Harmonic Evolution of Form, monumental sculptures, Palazzo della Borsa, Genova, Italy
2008 15 monumental sculptures, Gardens of Boulingrins, Monte Carlo, Monaco
2004 Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2003 Assessorato alla Cultura, Chiesa San Agostino and Piazza del Duomo, Pietrasanta, Italy
2001 Restrospective, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
Sophia Vari: Monumental Sculptures and Assemblages on Canvas, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany
1998 Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas, USA
1997 Restrospective, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, USA
1991 Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Ímbers, Caracas, Venezuela
1975 Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil
Important Group Exhibitions
2024 Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary Art Fair, represented by Art of the World Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, USA
ZonaMACO Arte Contemporáneo, represented by Art of the World Gallery, Mexico City, México
2023 Art Miami, represented by Art of the World Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
Art Central Hong-Kong, represented by Art of the World Gallery, Hong-Kong, China
2019 Seduzione Bellezza Contemporaneità – II Mestiere Delle Arti, Museo Nazionale di Ravenna, Ravenna, Italy
2018 Korean International Art Fair, represented by Art of the World Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
The Fifth Element, Art of the World Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
From Calder to Koons, Artist Jewelry – Diane Venet’s Ideal Collection, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
2017 Medusa – Jewelry and Taboos, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
2011 From Picasso to Koons – Artist’s Jewelry, Museum of Art & Design, New York, USA
2010 Women Creators in the 20th Century, Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada, Granada
2003 La Fête, Museo Valenciano de la Illustración y la Modernidad, Valencia, Spain
1998 La Biennale des Antiquaires, Fondation Veranneman Musée d’art Contemporain, Paris, France
1997 Vlème Biennale de la Sculpture, Monte Carlo, Monaco
1993 Regards sur la Femme, Musée de la Monnaie, Paris, France
1989 L’Europe des grands Maîtres, Musée Jacquemart André, Paris, France
Public Collections
Fondation Verannemann, Kruishoutem, Belgium
Museum of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia
Museum of Outdoor Sculpture, Paris, France
City of Athens, Square Mayor, Greece
National Gallery of Art / Alexandros Soutoz Museum, Athens, Greece
City of Pietrasanta, Italy
Museo degli Argenti, Dipartimento Gioello Contemporaneo, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy
Open Air Museum, Utukushi-ga-hara, Japan
Beeldenaanzen Museum, Den Haag, the Netherlands
Fundaçao Caloutse Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
Museo de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Musée de la Main, Lausanne, Switzerland
Hilton Hotel, New York City, New York, USA
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, USA
Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas, USA
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Caracas, Venezuela