signs and symbols

Common Denominators at 89 Greene
Camila Varon

October 19 - November 25, 2023

Opening Reception:
October 19, 2023
6:00-8:00pm

89 Greene at signs and symbols* is delighted to host Camila Varon’s first solo presentation in New York, Common Denominators, curated by Kathy Battista. Varon is a Colombian artist who lives and works in New York, recently graduated from SVA’s MFA program. For her 89 Greene project, she created a holistic installation of three paintings on silk and cotton that are connected by a network of lines that traverse the gallery space, forging physical and psychic connections between the works.

Varon paints these works on the floor using a staining technique reminiscent of Helen Frankenthaler’s, where the paint is applied with water, using swatches of fabrics, rather than brushes, to guide the composition. It is a perilous task: the artist does not tape off areas of the canvas and the water finds its own path across the surface through simple gravity. Thus, her practice is a delicate oscillation between chance and planned marks. In this process, each layer of paint soaks into the substrate which takes about a day to dry, so the paintings are created over time, one layer a day, until finalized twenty to thirty layers later. The artist makes simple sketches on paper before she embarks on the actual work, but the final version takes on a life of its own.

The paintings are notable for their surreal beauty as well as their intense and hallucinogenic colors. Her mountains seem to have rhythms syncopated by rivers and the hills unfold and furl across the fabric. Small moons and suns are sewn on by the artist in the final stages and are suggestive of nipples, evocative of the connection to her homeland. These landscapes consist of indigo skies, chartreuse green hills, deep burgundy mountains and yellow suns, giving the works a dreamlike appearance.

Varon’s paintings are not direct references, and instead are inspired by the landscapes of her home country. One of the most biodiverse nations in the world, Colombia’s topography varies from desert to mountains, forests and rivers to sea on the Northern coast. While growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, however, large parts of the country were off limits to civilian travel, due to narco traffic. Now that the country has stabilized and travel is possible, Varon is able to visit many locations that she had only heard about as a child, which have grown to iconic status in her mind. Varon keeps an archive of images of places that she would like to visit, some of which are reimagined in this series. Thus, she experiences the wonderment of a tourist even in her home country.

*Please note that all 89 Greene exhibitions are on view at the gallery’s location at 249 East Houston Street; the name of the project is only in reference to Jack Smith's historic address.

camila varon (b. 1995 Bogotá, Colombia) moved to New York to study at Parsons School of Design, where she obtained a BFA in Architectural Design in 2017, and recently obtained an MFA in Painting at School of Visual Arts in 2023. Working as an architect, designer and artist over the past 10 years, Camila has worked in design and production for pavilions at the London Design Biennale and PMQ Hong Kong. She’s also created installations, murals and exhibitions across New York that have been featured in E-flux and Airmail Weekly. Most recently she has shown her work at New Collectors Gallery, Tuleste Factory, Andrew Reed Gallery and was featured in Artsy’s Curator's Picks for emerging artists for her works shown at Selena’s Mountain.