Paloma Varga Weisz is a contemporary artist living in Germany, best known for her sculptures and drawings. In 2012, six of her drawings were acquired by and exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art. She lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Life
Paloma Varga Weisz was trained as a woodcarver from 1987-90 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From 1990 to 1998 she studied at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Tony Cragg and Gerhard Merz. Her multifaceted practice includes sculptures and installations mainly in wood and ceramics, as well as watercolors and drawings. Angela Stief, a curator at the Kunsthalle Wien, has said of her work: "Paloma Varga Weisz’ sculptural oeuvre, characterized by obvious references to traditional iconography and handcraft, joins the historical with a contemporary artistic practice that only rarely reveals its genealogical roots." She is the youngest daughter of Ferenc "Feri" Varga, a Hungarian painter who primarily lived and worked in France and Germany.
Awards and scholarships
2017: Holbach-Award, Stiftung zur Förderung der Kunst in der Pfalz
2007: Marianne-Werefkin-Preis, Berlin
2000/2001: Bremerhavenstipendium, Bremerhaven
Solo and Group exhibitions (selection)
2019:
Bumped Body, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands; Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK Homo Faber: Craft in Contemporary Sculpture, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea Mask: In Present Day Art, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland Animalesque / Art Across Species and Beings, Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden The Enigma of the Hour - 100 Years of Psychoanalytic Thought, Freud Museum, London The Palace at 4 a.am, NEON Foundation, Archeological Museum, Mykonos A cool Breeze, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague Wundergestalt, Gladstone 64, New York
2018:
Wild Bunch, Sadie Coles HQ, London Topologies, curated by Mika Yoshitake, THE WAREHOUSE, Dallas Parcours, Art Basel, Basel Von fremden Ländern in eigenen Städten, Düsseldorf Central Station, MAP Markus Ambach Projekte, Düsseldorf MATERIELL. Über das Geistige im Stofflichen, Galerie Altes Feuerhaus, Städtische Galerie Bad Reichenhall, Bad Reichenhall Nudes, Sadie Coles HQ, London ISelf Collection - Bumped Bodies, Whitechapel Gallery, London The Beautiful Escape, CFHILL, Stockholm A MIND OF WINTER, curated by Giorgio Pace and Rita Selvaggio, Fundaziun de Planta Samedan, Samedan
2017:
At Sea. Works from the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven Collection, Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst, Delmenhorst Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon ISelf Collection: The End of Love, Whitechapel Gallery, London Dreamers Awake, curated by Susanna Greeves, White Cube, London Luther and the Avantgarde, Altes Gefängnis, Wittenberg 'Skulpturenhalle, Thomas Schütte Foundation, Neuss/Holzheim Lucas Cranach the Elder, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
2016:
Revolt of the Sage, Blain Southern, London Behind the Curtain. Concealment and Revelation since the Renaissance. From Titian to Christo, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, National Museum of Women in the Art, Washington Cloud and Crystal – Jackson Pollock Meets Bruce Nauman, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf The Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London With a touch of pink, with a bit of violet, with a hint of green – Dorothee Fischer in memoriam, Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf The Distance of a Day – New in Contemporary Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Sulta Croce – Giubileo 2016, Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, Lugano Ceramix. Ceramic art from Gauguin to Schütte, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; La Maison Rouge, Paris; Sèvres - Cité de la céramique
2015:
NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami Root of a Dream, Castello di Rivoli, Turin The Problem of God, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf Bois Dormant, Gladstone Gallery, Brüssel
2014:
The Human Factor: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London Sadie Coles HQ, London
2013:
Paloma Varga Weisz, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin Die Bildhauer. Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, 1945 bis heute, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
2012:
Alone Together, Rubell Family Collection, Miami Prima Materia, Gladstone Gallery, Brüssel 'Sadie Coles HQ, London Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2011:
mémoires du futur – la collection Olbricht, La Maison Rouge, Paris Folkstone Triennial, Folkstone
2010:
Neues Rheinland, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen Lebenslust und Totentanz, Kunsthalle Krems Silent Revolution – Sammlungspräsentation, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf
2009:
Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2008:
The Gilded Age, Kunsthalle Wien Gladstone Gallery, New York
2007:
Sadie Coles HQ, London Makers and Modelers, Gladstone Gallery, New York
