Exhibitions
Paula Rego and Adriana Varejão merge their work in Lisbon
Paula Rego and Adriana Varejão team up to create one of the most spectacular exhibitions of 2025. The Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre in Lisbon brings together more than eighty pieces by these two world-renowned artists with Paula Rego and Adriana Varejao: Entre os vossos dentes , which can be seen until September 22. The exhibition is a must-see and it is because they are two artists who intertwine themes, present new readings and bring the terrifying together with the domestic in a journey that bites.
The tour leaves no one indifferent, encompassing drawings, paintings, prints, and a variety of materials from the creations of Paula Rego (Lisbon, 1935-2002) and Adriana Varejao (Rio de Janeiro, 1964). These two Portuguese-speaking artists' leitmotifs are violence, both political and domestic, in a constant exploration of colonial heritage, historical memory, and gender power.
Paula Rego and Adriana Varejão. Between Your Teeth © Pedro Pina
Paula Rego and Adriana Varejão are from different generations, from two continents—Europe and South America—separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Their work overlapped over a period of three decades, following autonomous paths that often converged on multiple levels. This exhibition seeks to bring to each of its thematic rooms points of intersection where these lines intertwine and generate points of light, in a dramaturgy in which the selected works are the main protagonists.
The First Miss in Brazil is the starting point, a 1993 work by Paula Rego, which marks the beginning of this discourse on generational dynamics and female perspectives. A labyrinthine journey through thirteen rooms of the Gulbenkian Modern Art Center, including iconic and renowned works such as Varejão's Extirpation of Evil and Paula Rego's Triptych and Angel . It is an opportunity to see Rego converse with Varejão, while also shocking the viewer's aesthetic and intellectual gaze.
Paula Rego and Adriana Varejão. Between Your Teeth © Pedro Pina
Incorporeal, immaterial, and subtle are the characteristics of Paula Rego; more physical and visceral in Adriana Varejão's work. In the exhibition, we discover what lies beneath the skin of each artist: while Paula Rego paints a sword suspended in the air, Adriana strikes and bites until she draws blood.
