Between Memory and Desire Miami | Clara Varas

The title references an in-between state- a conglomeration of what is factual, imagined, and future potential. The body of work in Between Memory and Desire was born from personal household items, clothing, found objects and industrial materials that excavate urbanity and allude to the precarious nature of contemporary life and the human condition. Varas, who is considered part of the 1.5 generation (persons who migrated to the United States between the ages of 6-18, and came of age here) uses the work as a means to record or explore personal history, identity, and how that may relate to current and broader experiences of migration and diaspora within Latinx, Caribbean and immigrant communities.

Consisting of site specific painting installation, mixed media assemblage and other painterly constructs- the works in exhibition exemplify the vitality of Miami and the capacity for painting as an expansive medium and environment. Varas’ work defies categorization, it is rooted in painting, yet remains in a space that is hybrid and in progress- as the artist has stated ” I never consider a piece finished, to me -it is a constantly evolving thing, always reacting to its immediate surroundings” One can perhaps make a case for calling the work a type of memento or monument, but these are not things that are only steeped in memory, they also affirm the present, daily life and the here and now.