About the work

Varda Caivano makes abstract paintings of a singular and singularly timeless nature. That said, they seem to be the byproduct of time and their immediate atmospheric conditions as much as they are authored by the artist’s hand. In keeping with their ambiguous temporality, they take place not immediately, but slowly, progressively, as if in a darkened room or a cave, in which the eye gradually adjusts to absorb their evolving imagery. They reveal themselves almost successively, skipping back and forth between different thresholds of perception. Their shimmering and patinated surfaces are liable to bring to mind the gilded character of Mesopotamian painting or Byzantine illuminated manuscripts as much as the modernism of Pierre Bonnard. Although born and raised in Buenos Aires, Caivano was formally educated in Britain, where she has lived and worked for over twenty years. As such, her practice is characterized by a distinctly European sensibility, and can be loosely located in a constellation of contemporary and recent European artists which includes Marisa Merz, Merlin James, Cathy Wilkes and, say, Hayley Tompkins.

Painted on flat sheets of linen or jute and then mounted on stretched linen, this body of work was created almost entirely in Mexico City, whose warm light and bright palette directly influenced the paintings. The pictures are initially mapped out from behind the canvas in charcoal, and then built up in opulent layers of gouache whose mark making all but gradually effaces itself in the process, making it difficult to understand how they happened, and continue to happen. If ever these paintings feel like events, it is not in the explosive spirit of abstract expressionism, but something altogether more subtle and understated, which requires and rewards a much more sustained attention. Like looking into small, shallow bodies of long-standing water, they team with unexpected life.

-Chris Sharp

About the artist

VARDA CAIVANO (b.1971, Buenos Aires) lives and works in London. Recent solo shows include the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2015); Chisenhale gallery,London (2007) and Kunstverein Freiburg, (2006). In 2013 a concise presentation of paintings throughout Caivano's practice, from early career to her most recent work, was included in The Encyclopedic Palace, the 55th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, selected by curator Massimiliano Gioni. Other recent exhibitions include, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2021); Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2019); Surface Work, Victoria Miro, London, UK (2018); Collection 2: The 1980s Zeitgeist as a Point of Departure, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2018). Current group exhibitions include No horizon, no edge to liquid, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (16 Jan 2020 - 23 Feb 2020) and Slow Painting, organised by Hayward Touring, which originated at Leeds Museum and Art Gallery, UK, touring to The Levinsky Gallery, Plymouth, UK (24 Jan – 28 Mar 2020), The Edge, University of Bath and BathSpa School of Art and Design (10 April–6 June 2020) and Inverness Museum and ArtGallery, and Thurso Art Gallery (24 July–3 October 2020). A solo exhibition will take place at Hastings Contemporary, Hastings, UK, in 2021.