Adriana Varejão and the work core of Comigo ninguém pode

From the AD HOC NEWS Art Desk » Work Series & Retrospective Desk - The editors cover exhibitions, auctions, collections, prizes and artistic positions. Published: August 22, 2026 · Last checked: August 22, 2026, 10:39 AM

Adriana Varejão has built a body of work that cuts into walls, tiles and flesh to scrutinize Brazil's colonial history. Her recent project Comigo ninguém pode for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale extends this focus with large-scale installations and paintings conceived in dialogue with the modernist architecture of the pavilion, as Fundação Bienal de São Paulo details.

The series behind the pavilion project

In the curatorial text for Comigo ninguém pode, Varejão is described as simulating concrete, flesh, Baroque woodcarving and ceramics through painting, culminating in botanical elements that echo the toxic plant giving the exhibition its title, according to the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo announcement. The Artsoul report on the Brazilian Pavilion project outlines how historical works from more than three decades of Varejão's production are interwoven with new large-scale pieces.

Among the historical series feeding into this project are the flesh-like wall pieces in which tiled surfaces rupture to reveal viscera, often referred to as her 'meat wall' works, and the azulejo-based paintings that fracture blue-and-white colonial tile imagery. These works push architectural and decorative forms toward scenes of violence and suturing, forming a core narrative in her practice.

Work series & retrospective perspective

Since the 1980s, Varejão has developed expansive groups of works, including the tile-based azulejo paintings, the cut-wall installations, and more recent plate-focused series, each turning surfaces of domestic and sacred spaces into sites of historical reckoning, as the Fundação Bienal text summarizes. Her long-term engagement with colonial imagery allows curators to bring together works from more than three decades into cohesive retrospectives.

Large institutional shows have already surveyed these series, such as exhibitions at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian in Lisbon and Pinacoteca de São Paulo, which presented substantial selections of her wall sections, flesh paintings and ceramic-informed pieces, per the biographical section in the Fundação Bienal publication on the pavilion project.

The work core in detail

Varejão's wall and tile series often present pristine surfaces ruptured by deep cuts, exposing a sculpted interior of viscera-like forms. Through oil and polyurethane foam she stages tensions between architectural order and bodily chaos, foregrounding how colonial power inscribed itself onto both buildings and bodies, as described in the Fundação Bienal biographical note.

Her long-running engagement with azulejos links Iberian and Brazilian histories: blue-and-white tiles, imported and locally produced, become carriers of religious and imperial imagery. By cracking, dislocating and bleeding these motifs, she destabilizes official narratives and highlights the violence behind ornamental façades.

Where the artist stands now

Overall, Adriana Varejão is positioned as a leading figure in contemporary Brazilian art, with a pavilion dedicated to her work at Instituto Inhotim and a sustained presence in major international collections, as outlined by Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.

This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.