About the artist:

Sophia Vari is a world-renowned Greek visual artist. Specializing in bronze sculpture, she is also known for collages, oils and watercolors. Her work is an investigation of form and balance. Like the sculptures, her collages, or papers on canvas, as well as her watercolors and oil paintings have a certain playfulness and liveliness, with compositions that are pushed into the realm of dimensional space. Vari’s sculptures have evolved through several stages in the last few decades. When she began sculpting in the 60s, her work was figurative. Later in the 80s, she worked in rounded abstract forms that suggested the human body. Eventually she began incorporating more planar and constructed forms into her work, and by the mid 90s she was applying color to the surfaces. From her early representational phase to her most recent abstractions, Vari’s work has been consistently characterized by its extraordinary sensuality and expressive quality. In her use of patina along with contrasting colors such as black with white, red, blue or yellow, she creates an immediate visual effect that gives her sculptures a certain presence. When experienced, Vari’s sculptures reveal themselves in a subtle and clever manner. She creates intricate forms that interact with themselves, the space and the viewer. Using color to contribute to the movement of her pieces, her sculptural works, both the monumental and the smaller formats, have an autonomous life. This is created from the permutation of shapes with a sense of lightness and suspension, yet resolving space and structure with an imposing bearing. Vari’s monumental sculptures have been shown around the world. The integration of her work within the cities in which they are exhibited is one of Vari’s main concerns. Complexity, elegance and harmony merge to become part of the destined space. Each piece exhibits the tactile quality of the patina surfaces, allowing a humanistic connection, while its majestic impact embodies a spiritual connection. Born in Athens in 1940, Sophi Vari attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris in 1958. She has exhibited widely throughout the world and has had nearly 100 one-person exhibitions. Museum exhibitions include the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence; the Palazzo Bricherassio, Torino; The Ludwig Museum, Kombletz; and more recently, the Pera Museum, Istanbul. Outdoor solo exhibitions of Vari’s sculptures have taken place in cities such as Paris, Rome, Montecarlo, Baden-Baden, Geneva, Pietrasanta, Athens, Madrid and Cartagena de Indias, among others. Sophia Vari currently lives and works in Pietrasanta, Italy. Born in Athens, Greece in 1940 Lives and works in Paris and Pietrasanta, Italy EDUCATION Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2015 Nohra Haime Gallery, “In Relief,” New York Nohra Haime Gallery, “Wearable Sculpture,” New York Galería El Museo, Pueblos de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia 2014 Museum of Contemporary Art, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, “Sophia Vari,” Andros, Greece Louisa Guinness Gallery, “Sophia Vari: Scale of Beauty,” London, England 2013 Pera Museum, “Sophia Vari: Sculptures and Paintings,” Istanbul, Turkey 2012 Nohra Haime Gallery, “Wearable Sculpture,” New York Contini Art Gallery, “Sophia Vari: Gioielli, Sculture, Dipinti,” Venice, Italy Palazzo della Borsa, “Le Armoniche Evoluzioni della Forma,” Genoa, Italy NH Galeria, “Acuarelas y Collages,” Cartagena de Indias, Colombia Galerie Mini Masterpiece, “Sophia Vari: Bijoux Sculptes,” Paris, France 2011 Cartagena de Indias, Monumental Sculptures, Colombia Galerie Pièce Unique, “I Love Greece,” Paris, France Paseo de la Castellana, “Forma y Color,” Madrid, Spain Louisa Guinness Gallery, “Sophia Vari,” London, England Nohra Haime Gallery, “Recent Sculptures and Watercolors,” New York 2010 Artcurial, “Bijoux Sculptés,” Paris 2009 Forum, Monterrey, Mexico 2008 Temple of Confusius, “Sophia Vari,” Beijing, China Principality of Monaco, “Sophia Vari: Monumental Sculptures” Nohra Haime Gallery, New York 2007 Galeria Contini, Venice, Italy Instituto Óscar Domínguez de Arte y Cultura Contemporánea, Tenerife Concert Hall, “Sophia Vari: Monumental Sculpture,” Tenerife Caja Canarias, Centro Cultural, La Laguna 2006 “Sophia Vari: Monumental Sculptures at Moncalieri,” Torino, Italy Galerie Pièce Unique, Paris, France Galeria Ramis Barquet, Monterrey, Mexico Palacio de la Aduana, Málaga, Spain 2005 Nohra Haime Gallery, New York Museo de Arte Moderno, Granada, Spain Place de Saint Germain des Pres, “Sophia Vari: Monumental Sculptures,” Paris, France Museo de Arte Moderno, Sevilla, Spain Museo de Arte Moderno, Girona, Spain