Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão opens her fifth solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, NY, on April 24th, presenting new works that continue her interest and conflation of race/colonial politics, the baroque and the history and tradition of painting. Titled Polvo, the exhibition examines the skin palette of miscegeny in Brazil as starting point for the works: a series of painted self-portraits, each varying in skin coloration, in accordance to the color wheel Varejão created that diagrammatizes different skin tones. For the new body of work the artist also produced a set of oil paints, encased on a wooden box, wherein each tube contains a skin tone used to color her self-portraits. Named after thirty-three definitions of skin colors taken from a 1976 racially-charged Brazilian census survey, colors include: Enxofrada (Angry Sulphur), Café com Leite (Milky Coffee), Branquinha (Snow White), Burro-quando-foge (Faded Fawn), Cor Firme (Steady Colour), Morenão (Big Black Dude), Encerada (Buffed) and Queimada de Sol (Sun Kissed). On view through June 21st, check out more info here.
