Brigitta Varadi MARKINGS

Exhibition Dates:
August 4 – 24, 2018

Opening reception:
August 4 Saturday
3pm – 6pm
Closing reception:
24 August Friday
3pm – 6pm

Artist talk:
18 August Saturday
3pm – 5pm

Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Sunday 1-6pm.

Through her work, Brigitta Varadi explores pattern and repetition of gesture that relate to the invisible and everyday rituals of working life and the constructed environment. Her projects combine painting, textile, video and public interventions.

Brigitta’s latest project MARKINGS gathers together and explores the different marks used by farmers to identify their sheep in the North West region. With the use of traditional techniques and a system of marks used by shepherds, her works examine the mechanics of remembering and reminding. Creating a dialogue with farmers and place the project also opens on to a broader reflection concerning the signs and forms of identification humans use to identify animals, plants and territories.

Váradi’s works bear affinities with socially committed art, but they were not created in the name of political activism. Instead, she examines the disappearing traditions and daily activities of small, secluded communities around the world: her grandmother mopping up her kitchen floor several times a day, the “liberty” tea made by inhabitants of New York State and the marking system of the dwindling community of shepherds in Ireland. Research always plays a key factor in her creative process, for instance taking pictures and recording videos, and her finished works often necessitate experimentation with an entirely new technique.

‘The act of inscription—more than the content of the inscribed markings—is paramount. In visual and material fidelity, each artwork represents a person, one whose occupation and knowledge, their ownership and memory, leave a bold mark on the canvas. These graphic representations—and they are both mimetic representations and abstractions—could be equally at home on a damp Irish hillside or in the modern art gallery. In the shared gestures of the farmer and the artist, two lineages come together…..Indeed, embedded into these artworks—literally felted and matted, smeared onto their surfaces—is a history of labor and tradition: men’s and women’s, commercial and domestic, craft and fine art. Like Pollock straddling his drip paintings, Varadi crouches atop the wool as she felts it, counting, rolling a single piece—the fleeces of five sheep—up to 25,000 times. She works each textile as if making pastry, turning it to ensure even shrinkage as its wet fibers hook together. The physical properties of wool fight back, taxing Varadi’s body as she transforms it from raw material into singular artwork.’
excerpts from essay by Andrea Alessi (Link to full essay: Marking memory

BIO:
Brigitta Varadi was born in Hungary and currently she divides her time between Co.Leitrim, Ireland, New York, USA and her native Hungary. Brigitta’s work is found in many public and private collections including a government commission by the Office of Public Works for The Department of Education and Science, Athlone, Ireland and is recently completed a collaborative public art commission for Sligo County Council, Ireland (2017).
Brigitta Varadi latest solo shows were held at the Budapest Gallery, Hungary (2017), Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland (2015), Serbian Church Gallery Hungary (2015), Textile Arts Centre New York. (2014). She has participated in the New York Foundation for the Arts IAP Mentoring Program (2016) and been awarded fellowships by the Wassaic Project, NY (2016) Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland (2015), Textile Arts Centre, Brooklyn (2014), LOCIS, European Cultural Program (2014) and TRADE, Ireland (2011). She has been artist in residence at the Marble House Project, Vermont, NARS Foundation, NY, Chashama, NY, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland and KulttuuriKauppila, Finland.
She is a recipient of numerous awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Leitrim County Council and Culture Ireland. She was the grand winner of the Art Slant 2016 Prize. Her work has been reviewed in the Irish Times and included in several books. Brigitta was acknowledged for her contribution to the arts of Ireland by the President, Mary Mc Alesse, 2008.

In addition to developing her own practice, Brigitta works on commissions and exhibitions, developing projects with people of all ages and abilities within the community sector, schools, prisons and arts centers. She has co-designed and facilitated the Creative Lab for the United Nation, Framework Convention on Climate Change, Bonn, Germany (2013). She is currently the Residency Director at chaNorth, chashama a nonprofit organization that supports artists by giving them space to create and present their work, while fostering community development through the arts

‘Indeed, embedded into these artworks—literally felted and matted, smeared onto their surfaces—is a history of labor and tradition: men’s and women’s, commercial and domestic, craft and fine art. Like Pollock straddling his drip paintings, Varadi crouches atop the wool as she felts it, counting, rolling a single piece—the fleeces of five sheep—up to 25,000 times. She works each textile as if making pastry, turning it to ensure even shrinkage as its wet fibers hook together. The physical properties of wool fight back, taxing Varadi’s body as she transforms it from raw material into singular artwork.’
excerpts from essay by Andrea Alessi

Link: Brigitta Varadi website

Some images from the show!