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Kálmán Várady
1958 in Hoffnungsthal
1979 – 84 Studied at the Cologne Art Academy under Prof. Werner Schriefers
1986 Master student with Prof. Werner Schriefers
Kálmán Várady lives and works in Cologne
Life and work
Kálmán Várady, descended from Armenian Sinti and Roma, is a Rom who has travelled far and wide with a taste for danger. He studied free painting under Professor Wolfgang Schriefer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cologne and became his master student from the mid-1980s. During this time and in the 1990s, he travelled extensively, including to Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, the USA, Mexico, Senegal, Nigeria and Venezuela. These have had a significant influence on the content of his work to this day.
For Várady, being a nomad is not an economic necessity or a fulfilment of a cliché, but a pleasure, a broadening of horizons and a way of life. The content of Várady’s art goes beyond the bourgeois concept of art. His works oscillate between painting, object, sculpture, installation and photography and are a constant process of reconstitution. Depending on the context in which they are placed, works appear in ever new combinations. A sculpture or object emerges from a collection of found objects, often reminiscent of a shrine, altar or totemic figure. He artistically reflects and actualises cults, rituals and myths, natural religions and magical processes from various continents he has experienced himself. The darkness of the struggle for survival in these often very poor regions flows into the works of art. Order lies in chaos, everything is of equal importance, the artistic method is composition, arrangement. Várady’s figures, sculptures and objects have an animistic-aesthetic quality. His work thematises magic as well as mystery, ritual and death. This includes processes of change such as weathering, ‘hanging’ and ‘sacrifice’, which lend the objects a special character in the artistic process.In general, Várady often refers to transience and death; the pistol bullets shown in the GYPSY WARRIORS exhibition symbolise the permanent danger in which one finds oneself.
Gilded, they remind us of the preciousness of our lives. His humour and irony are also important for understanding Várady’s works, as they put the internalised gravity of his works into a different perspective; the gilded spheres, which could have meant his death, have a humorous component, as one can only free oneself from death by laughing.
Having long focussed on totemic art, playing with altars, magical figures and private cults, Várady is increasingly thematising his Roma existence on an artistic and political level. For example, the photographic series ‘Familija’ (2008) was created based on the typological survey of Sinti and Roma in the so-called Ritter Archive of the Racial Hygiene Research Centre. It refers both to the actions of the National Socialists against the ‘Gypsies’ and to today’s practice of identifying, categorising and defaming people. Due to his origins, it made sense for Várady to include himself and his six daughters as images in this work of art. Seven people (the six daughters and the father) are photographed in today’s police identification style. The series consists of black and white photographs of the faces in frontal and profile views and comparative shots of the hands.
The exhibition GYPSY WARRIORS shows another work by Várady that deals with the Porajmos: a used, poliment-gilded butcher’s block with a deportation number stamped on it. It is a reminder of the millions of murdered Sinti and Roma, whose few possessions their butchers then enriched themselves with.
RʳOMA LEPANTO, Palazzo Bembo, Venedig (IT)
BARVALO, Mucem, Marseille (FR)
WE ARE HERE! 2nd Roma Biennale, Berlin (DE)
” Tränen aus Gold” European Roma Holcaust Memorial Day im Auditorium Maximum Krakau ( Pl )
(Re) Conceptualizing Roma Resistance – ERIAC Berlin (DE)
” Roma Spring” Art as Resistance, ERIAC, Berlin (DE)
ADK Akademi der Künste Berlin (DE)
Alexander und Renata Camaro Stiftung Berlin (DE)
STOPPING PLACES VI, Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin (DE)
Akate Te Beshen, Galerie Českých center, Prag (TR)
Akate Te Beshen, CentroCentro, Madrid (SP)
Akate Te Beshen, Galerie 59 Rivoli, Paris (FR)
Frei Sein!, Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin (DE)
Frei Sein!, Schloß Heidelberg – Ottheinrichsbau (DE)
25 Jahre Kunst im Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Siegburg (DE) Kaum zu Glauben (Katalog), Städtische Galerie Schwingeler Hof, Stadt Wesseling (DE)
Transmittting Trauma . Zeitgenössische Reflektionen zum Genozid an den Sinti Roma – Ausstellung und Bildungsprogramm, Gallery8 und Galerie Kai Dikhas, Budapest-Berlin (H-DE)
STOPPING PLACES V, Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin (DE)
AKATHE TE BESHEN – Here to stay . Zeitgenössische Kunst der Roma und Sinti und die Kunst Otto Pankoks Kunststation Kleinsassen, Kleinsassen (DE)
Kathe Ham Mer Kheri – Hier sind wir zu Hause, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart (DE)
Ruhe-Störung. Streifzüge durch die Welten der Collage (Katalog), Marta Herford (Gehry-Galerien), Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Ahlen (DE)
Ruhe-Störung. Streifzüge durch die Welten der Collage , Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Ahlen (DE)
Golgata. Kunst und Religion (Katalog), Bund Bildender Künstler, Köln (DE)
Rauminstallation Loko-Azamgun III, Stapelhaus, Köln (DE)
Monocrom, Chambre d`ami, München (DE)
Alone Together – Kultur der Sinti und Roma zwischen Verfolgung und Emanzipation, Lew Kopelew Forum Köln, Köln (DE)
Europe,Pays de mon enfance mit Gabi Jimenez, Damian Le Bas und Delaine Le Bas, Carreau de Cergy, Paris (F)
Kunst und Religion, Schürman Kapelle
Rauminstallation Voodooaltar „Loko Azamgun II”, St. Michael, Köln (DE)
ART 68 Raum für Kunst und Kultur
Armut-Perspektiven in Kunst und Gesellschaft (Katalog), Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier und Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier (DE)
Armut, Museum für Brotkultur, Ulm (DE)
Aire compartiblo (Katalog), Museo del Arte Moderno Toluca (MEX)
Gypsi, 10 x Kunst in der Schmiede – Stadt Rösrath (DE)
Labyrinth – Irrgarten der Künste, Kolbhalle, Köln (DE)
Verloren Paradijs – Kunst der Roma (Katalog), International Gipsy Festival Het Duvelhok, Tilburg (NL)
Kunst und Humor, Bund Bildender Künstler, Köln (DE)
Die vergessenen Europäer – Kunst der Roma. Roma in der Kunst, (Katalog) Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, Köln (DE)
Motherboard, Frauenhofer Haus München – Art meets Science, München (DE)
Motherboard (Katalog), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft für Graphische Datenverarbeitung IGD, Darmstadt (DE), House Art
DASA, Galerie im Deutschen Arbeitsschutzmuseum, Dortmund (DE)
Künstlerstühle, Galerie 68 elf, Köln (DE)
Jump Shit Rat“ Galerie Jump Shit Rat, 25 Jahre Städtepartnerschaft, Köln-Liverpool (DE-GB)
Motherboard (Katalog), Deutsches Museum Bonn, Bonn (DE)
Motherboard, Kunstwerk in der alten Weberei, Langenfeld (DE)
Fifty–Fifty, Agrippa Bad Köln, Köln (DE)
Tuchfühlung I, Kunstverein Langenberg, Lippisches Landesmuseum (DE)
RWE Park, Essen (DE)
Galerie zum kleinen Schwan, Baden (DE)
Free Tibet, Osteuropäisches Kulturzentrum Köln, Köln (DE)
Kunstverein Langenberg (DE)
Galerie Seidel, Köln (DE)
Tohuwabohu, Deutsche Welle, Köln (DE)
Media Park Glas-Saal, Köln (DE)
Grundsteinkiste 365 (Katalog), Kunstverein Langenberg (DE)
Art Multiple Düsseldorf, Ausstellungsbeitrag Kunstverein Langenberg (DE)
ART Cologne, Ausstellungsbeitrag Kunstverein Langenberg (DE)
Vasarely Museum (Katalog), Budapest (H)
Paul Luchtenberg Stiftung, Burscheid (DE)
Gustav Stresemann Institut, Bonn (DE)
Künstlergruppe „BASTARTS“, Osteuropäisches Kulturzentrum, Köln (DE)
Galerie im alten Kloster, Köln (DE)
Grafik der Gegenwart (Kalender), Arbeiterwohlfahrt Bonn (DE)
Werkschule Köln, Köln (DE)
Simultanhalle, Köln (DE)
