Pedro Cera

Paloma Varga Weisz

Paloma Varga Weisz

Paloma Varga Weisz (b. 1966 in Mannheim, Germany) lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. Her wood-carved sculptures, paintings, drawings and watercolors explore themes of memory, mortality, transformation, metamorphosis, the uncanny and the tragicomic. Art-historical and literary resonances pervade her work – German folklore, Christian iconography, and Modernist sculpture. Varga Weisz subsumes these influences into a distinctive personal style, characterized both by playful surrealism and emotional candour. In many of her sculptures and drawings, she depicts imaginary characters – hybrid anthropomorphic creatures which recall the surreal bodies of fairy tales and folklore. Elsewhere, she assembles found and crafted objects in kunstkammer-style arrangements which suggest repositories of memory or allegories of the subconscious. Woodcarving has formed a central aspect of Paloma Varga Weisz’s work since the beginning of her career. She trained as a woodcarver in Bavaria from 1987-2000, and has continued to utilize and develop this technique, tapping into its rich iconographic history.

Varga Weisz's work is included in the collections of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and Kunstmuseum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf, Germany), the Bonnefanten Museum (Maastricht, The Netherlands), the Israel Museum (Jerusalem), the Museum Kurhaus Kleve (Kleve, Germany) and the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA (New York, USA), as well as other private collections. Major solo exhibitions include Glory Hole, Le Consortium (Dijon, France, 2021); Bumped Body, Henry Moore Institute (Leeds, England, 2020); Bumped Body, Bonnefanten Museum (Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2019); Skulpturenhalle, Thomas Schütte Foundation (Holzheim, Germany, 2017); Root of a Dream, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Turin, Italy, 2015); Glory Hole, Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg, Austria, 2015); Krummer Hund, Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst (Bremerhaven, Germany, 2013); Maison de Plaisance, Museum Morsbroich (Leverkusen, Germany, with Rosemary Trockel, 2012) and Spirits of My Flesh, Chapter (Cardiff, England, 2011), among other. Her works have also been included in numerous group shows, at Kunsthalle Museum Bremerhaven (Germany, 2023); The National Gallery (London, England, 2021); Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf, Germany, 2017); Hayward Gallery (London, England, 2014); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf, Germany, 2015; 2005); Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA, 2012); Kunsthalle Krems (Krems, Austria, 2010); the Berlin Biennale (2006) and the Venice Biennale (2005), to name a few.