“A Happy Walk 2”

Cybèle Varela began her career in the 1960s, becoming one of the key figures of the "New Figuration", creating works that critically reflected on Brazilian society, the political state and gender relations. In 1967, her triptych De tudo aquilo que pode ser (MAC USP, São Paulo) received the JAC award. In the same year, she participated for the first time in the São Paulo Biennial, where her box-shaped object "O Presente" (The Gift) (1967) was removed by the police for political reasons even before the official opening of the biennial.

In her works from the 1960s, as well as in her other box-shaped objects, puzzles and paintings on wood, Cybèle Varela explored the representation of the urban environment, tinged with social critique, gender issues and irony. These works are often defined by geometric lines - such as pedestrian crossings or light and shadows - that structure the space in an enigmatic way.

He received several awards, including: the Young Contemporary Art Award (JAC) at the MAC USP in São Paulo (1967), the XXIV Paraná Art Salon (1967), the silver medal at the XIX São Paulo Modern Art Salon, and the Banestado Award at the Campinas Salon (1971).

In 1968, Varela left for Paris on a scholarship from the French government, where she moved permanently in 1971, after receiving a second scholarship, and was an artist in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts (1973-1975). In her works from the 1970s, initially in synthetic enamel on wood and later in acrylic on canvas, she investigated the persistence of Brazil's memory and the question of the passing of time, which she explored through the theme of sunlight. Her work was part of the Narrative Figuration movement, and was highly appreciated by critics such as Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and Pierre Restany, among others. In 1975, she was the only woman, and Brazilian, to participate in the exhibition 'Selection 75', which toured France and brought together the most prominent artists of the time, along with Lindstrom, Pierre Soulages, Arman, among others.

His research involves painting, photography and video in a series of works entitled 'Image', which continued until the 1980s, with the central theme being the representation of nature and its spatial variations. From the end of the 1990s onwards, Varela returned to exploring issues of gender and social constructions, working in the form of series, including paintings, photographs and videos, around specific themes, such as bandits or sci-fi figures, where popular traditions and intimate narratives are mixed.

In 2009, his video “Image” (1976, Paris, Centre Pompidou), participated in the exhibition elles@centrepompidou.fr , at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and later participated in the Brazilian editions of the exhibition, at the CCBB in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. Recent exhibitions include: A time of my own. Liberarse de las bandages de lo vida , Center Pompidou, Malaga (2022-2023, Spain) ; Unusual , Museum of Contemporary Art of Paraná (MAC-PR), Curitiba (2022, Brazil), Narrative Figuration 60s-70s , Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York, (2021, USA), AI-5 50 years. It hasn't finished finishing yet , Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2018, Brazil).

Cybèle Varela has participated in hundreds of salons, solo and group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad: France, Germany, Italy, the United States, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and Japan. In addition to the 9th São Paulo International Biennial, she participated in the 10th and 17th editions of the event in São Paulo, among other biennials. Her works are part of the most important private and public collections, including: Reina Sofia (Madrid, Spain), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), Art Museum of the Americas (Washington DC, USA) and, in Brazil, MAC-USP, MASP, MAM-SP; MAM-RJ, among others.

In 2018, the Brasilea Foundation (Basel, Switzerland) organized the artist's first retrospective exhibition. In 2023, MAC-USP in São Paulo will present a new exhibition focusing on her early production from the 1960s and 1970s.