suzanne varni

BIOGRAPHY

Suzanne Varni is a visual artist and practitioner of painting, sculpture, and photography. She studied at Otis School of Design in Los Angeles and received her BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York. Ms. Varni has presented her paintings in one-person exhibitions at AAA Gallery in Manhattan and at Grace Gallery in Brooklyn. Additionally, she has shown her paintings, sculptures, and photographs in numerous curated group exhibitions in NY. 

Recently, Suzanne Varni was the curator for Voracious Eye, a group exhibition exploring the varied meanings of food, in the Abrazo Interno Gallery at The Clemente.

She was also pivotal in developing, organizing and supervising Artists Alliance Inc.’s Lower East Side Rotating Studio Program at The Clemente where she served as Program Coordinator from 2003-2009. 

Previously, Ms. Varni was employed as an arts administrator at New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Chamber Music of American, and Franklin Furnace Archives, Inc. 

Prior to that, she worked as an assistant to Jeff Koons Productions as the studio colorist.

Volunteering for her community has been important to Suzanne Varni throughout her life. She has been a community gardener for 25 years, and worked at her neighborhood public school as the Events Coordinator for numerous fundraisers to support public education.

STATEMENT

I use painting, sculpture, and photography to create visual spaces that contain and contrast formal elements and personal emotions. Sculpturally, with arts and crafts skills that I learned as a child, I hand-fabricate unique objects to represent complex issues of adult feminine sexuality. I then utilize photographic lighting techniques to establish an environment for these objects to exist, interact, and be photographed. The resulting photographs serve as sketches and provide the raw material for my paintings. Abstract objects and images are often transformed and painted in a representational manner. Representational objects can be transformed and painted in an abstract manner.

Currently my work is directly impacted by ongoing political, cultural and environmental events. The stormy, smoky clouds that impair our country’s vision have now appeared in my work.

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