Vari is primarily a sculptor and works both on a monumental and a small scale in metal and stone, she is also well known for her painting on canvas and most recently a collection of beautiful jewellery. In addition to the jewellery, the gallery is pleased to be able to show some unique sculptures made from silver and white marble which fit beautifully with the jeweller y and all speak the same language.
Born in Athens, to a Greek father and a Hungarian mother, Sophia Vari spent part of her childhood in Switzerland, studied in England and France, and lives nowadays between New-York, Monaco and Pietrasanta. Internationally renowned as a painter and a sculptor in her own right, she is also married to the well known Columbian painter Fernando Botero. Sophia Vari has exhibited in prestigious institutions, and her monumental sculptures are present in major cities of the world.
Sophia Vari's works, even her monumental sculptures, are quiet but alluring. Whilst they hum with energy they do not impose themselves immediately on the viewer, instead they seduce and entice with their highly original and elegant explorations of shape and colour. Vari is not afraid to inject humanity and life back into the world of abstraction which is displayed in both her monumental sculptures and her miniatures. Many of the titles Vari gives her work noticeably pay tribute to her native land displaying the influence of her Greek artist heritage, which durably inhabits her portfolio.
The jewels of Sophia Vari were born when she was in the process of giving up figurative painting. Abstract constructions made of silver, gold and wood, became pendants, bracelets and rings. The pieces have Inter-woven curves which gives a roundness that softens a more geometrical form. Vari deals with accessories as if they were a work of art, a volume of space to be seen from all angles. It's only after having conceived the object in relief, modelled each side, that she adapts it so that it can be worn. Mirror in hand to judge in reverse she starts the fittings, rectifying the curve of a necklace, decreasing an earring, reduces a volume here, restoring the symmetry there. Sophia Vari's jewellery unwillingly full-fills two roles, as it is an accessory in the hands of a woman, but as soon as she lays it on a table it becomes a sculpture again.
