Join us for a conversation with Clara Varas and Marcos Valella at DV about Between Memory and Desire—Clara Varas and The Commonplace of Things—Marcos Valella, solo exhibitions by both the artists.
The artists will be in conversation with Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, artist, Co-founder & Co-director of DV.
Clara Varas
Clara Varas (b. 1972 Havana, Cuba) lives and works in Miami, Florida. Varas holds a BFA in painting from the School of Visual Arts, New York, New York. The artist’s practice explores the field of expanded painting and investigates identity, gender, migration and the concept of home. Recent exhibitions include “Day IN- Day Out” (2021) Spinello Projects in Miami, Florida. “Florida Prize in Contemporary Art” (2021) at the Orlando Museum of Art in Orlando, Florida. “Cut: Abstraction in the United States from the 1970s to the Present” (2019) Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, Florida. “Materiality” (2018) Scope Special Projects, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, New York. Varas was a (2021) nominee for the Joan Mitchell Fellowship (former painters and sculptors grant) an Ellies Creator Award winner, (2020) from Oolite Arts, and a 2015 finalist for the Cintas Foundation fellowship in visual arts. Clara Varas’ work has been published in The New York Times, The Miami Herald, Miami New Times and Hyperallergic amongst many others. Varas’ work is part of numerous private collections and the permanent collection of the Perez Art Museum Miami.
Marcos Valella
Marcos Valella received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from The University of Iowa. He is the recipient of the Here and There Grant – Berlin, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach; a resident at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Miami, SOMA Artist in Residence, Mexico City; a participant in Dialogues in Cuban Art artist exchange program, Havana, and a resident in Andrea Zittel A-Z West.
His exhibitions include Interlay, Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, Rock Island, IL; While watching T.V., Windows @ Walgreens, Miami Beach; framekini, Bikini Wax, Mexico City; Grid’s World, Locust Projects, Miami; Yesterday Clouds, Underdonk, New York, NY; Fish Scales, Michael Jon & Alan Gallery, Miami; Practices Remain, Regina Rex, New York; Marcos Valella, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami; Series 5, Dimensions Variable, Miami; New Work Miami, Perez Art Museum Miami; Present, Centro Cultural Español, Miami; and Painting’s Edge, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA.
Collections include Pérez Art Museum Miami, Fort Lauderdale Art Museum, Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, Girls’ Club Foundation, University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, MDC Museum of Art and Design Miami. He has been included in various publications such as Artforum, The New Yorker, The Miami New Times, The Miami Herald, The Miami Rail, Hyperallergic, and Time Out New York.
