Paloma Varga Weisz

Paloma Varga Weisz, youngest daughter of Hungarian painter Ferenc « Feri » Varga, was born in 1966, in Mannheim, Germany. She lives and works in Düsseldorf. She learned to carve wood at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, between 1987 and 1990, and she graduated from Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, in 1998, under the orientation of artists Tony Cragg and Gerhard Merz.

Her work deals above all with memory, death and metamorphosis, using references from German traditional popular culture, Christian iconography and modern sculpture. However, these influences acquire a language that oscillates between the strange and the tragicomic. To be noted are the imaginary hybrid figures, represented in sculpted wood, in drawing or in painted paper, as well as the assemblages, kunstkammer style, which function as repositories of the subconscious.

Varga Weisz exhibits her work since 1996. Her most significant solo exhibitions are Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst, Bremerhaven, 2001; Root of a Dream, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, 2002; Spirits of My Flesh, Chapter, Cardiff, 2011; Maison de Plaisance, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, 2012; Glory Hole, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, 2015; Kabinettstück, Fürstenberg Zeitgenössisch, Donaueschingen, 2016 and Skulpturenhalle, Thomas Schütte Foundation, Holzheim, 2017. Her group exhibitions include, among others, Venice Biennale, 2005; 4^th Berlin Biennale, 2006; Folkstone Triennial, 2011; Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration, MoMA, New York, 2012; The Human Factor, Hayward Gallery, London, 2014; Lucas Cranach the Eldes, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, 2017; ISelf Collection: The End of Love / Bumped Bodies, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2017-18 and Animalesque. Art Across Species and Beings, Bildmuseet Umeå University / BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 2019. Varga Weisz received the Marianne-Werefkin Award, Berlin, 2007 and the Holbach-Award, Stiftung zur Förderung der Kunst in der Pfalz, Landau, 2017. Her work is represented in various public collections such as the Museum Kurhaus Kleeve, Duitsland; MoMA, New York; Rubell Family Collection, Miami and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

 

SN, November 2020