Keith J. Varadi

An artist, poet, writer, performer, and curator, Keith J. Varadi is best known for paintings of muted paint splotches formed by the artist pressing a wet painting onto raw canvas, in effect creating an oil painting copy of a previous oil painting. The canvas just as much a part of the painting’s materiality as the paint, Varadi describes his works as “oil and canvas,” not oil on canvas. Like his Conceptual art predecessors John Baldessari, David Reed, and Sol Lewitt, Varadi has created a set of rules that dictate his process, with the allowance for the rules to be broken. Some of these rules include “Use different tools (no brushes) to scrape, rub, push the paint through the raw canvas until I am satisfied, or often, more importantly surprised ,” and “If unsatisfied, or unsurprised by the results, add paint to the surface of the stretched raw canvas (without the use of a brush).” A prolific writer, Varadi often composes his own exhibition press releases which consist of original haiku-like poems.

Varadi’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Retrospective in Hudson, Smart Objects in Los Angeles, Sébastien Ricou in Brussels, and Welcome Screen in London. His work has been included in group presentations at Circuit12 in Dallas; Night Gallery in Los Angeles, SHOW ROOM in Brooklyn, Annarumma in Naples, Primetime in Brooklyn, and Stadium in New York. He is Associate Director at Greene Exhibitions in Los Angeles and co-founder and member of the collective, Picture Menu.