Pedro Varela (Niterói, RJ, Brazil, 1981) lives and works in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. Over more than two decades, the artist has developed a painting practice devoted to landscape as a realm of fiction. His acrylic-on-canvas paintings draw on Baroque literary references and on the work of colonial-era traveling artists to construct a tropical imaginary that corresponds to no verifiable place, but echoes historically entrenched discourses about what the tropics should be.
Against misty, atmospheric backgrounds, vegetal forms emerge, abstracted into psychedelic contours and fluorescent colors. The iridescent palette and ornamental elements evoke the idea of the "exotic" projected onto tropical landscapes through a foreign gaze. In more recent series, Varela alternates paintings in vibrant hues and psychedelic forms with paintings in reduced color palettes, including monochromes in black, white and blue.
Among his solo exhibitions are five shows at Zipper Galeria (2011, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022); Tudo que tive que engolir nessa vida at Capelinha do Parque Lage (Rio de Janeiro, 2024); MEMErabilia at Soda Arte (São Paulo, 2023); A Trail With No End In Sight at Galería Enrique Guerrero (Mexico City, 2019); Crônicas tropicais at MDM Gallery (Paris, 2015); Tropical at Galería Enrique Guerrero (Mexico City, 2014); Pedro Varela at the Centre Culturel Jean-Cocteau (Les Lilas, 2014); Pedro Varela at Xippas (Montevideo, 2013); Tropical at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2012); and Cidade Flutuante at Paço das Artes (São Paulo, 2010).
He has participated in group exhibitions such as Guanabara, o abraço do Mar (Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, 2024); Grande Bizarre (Galería Enrique Guerrero, Todos Santos, Mexico, 2024); Navegar é preciso – Paisagens Fluminenses (Casa França-Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 2023); Vagalumes 21 (Museu Histórico da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, 2022); Sunnysick (Casa 70, Lisbon, 2022); Líneas en el espacio (Museo de la Cancillería, Mexico City, 2019); Escola de Belas Artes: 1816–2016 (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, 2016); Ficções (Caixa Cultural do Rio de Janeiro, 2015); Latina (Xippas Art Contemporain, Geneva, 2014); Repentista (Gallery Nosco, London, 2014); Le Brésil Rive Gauche (Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, Paris, 2013); Gigante por su propia naturaleza (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia, 2011); and Cardinal Points / Puntos Cardinales (Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 2007).
His work is held in collections including the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand), the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), the Coleção SESC (Brazil), the Montblanc Mexico collection (Mexico City) and the Sprint Nextel Art Collection (Overland Park).