Nūn Art Gallery • Luxor, Egypt • Artist Mona Vardi

Nūn Art Gallery • Artists • Mona Vardi

Nūn Art Gallery is pleased to introduce to you ... :

Mona Vardi

Mona Vardi was born in Cologne, Germany. After finishing her training as a fashion designer in Dusseldorf, Germany, she moved to Paris, France. In 1980, she became a student of Russian artist Yuri Kuper. She worked as a freelance graphic designer in Paris from 1985 to 1989.

In the years from 1989 to 1992, Mona Vardi spent a long time in South Africa, Mexico and Guatemala studying the practices and rituals of healers and shamans. In 1993, she moved again to France and started to work as an interior designer. Back in Germany in 2010, she dedicated herself to painting since 2015. Since 2017, she lives and works in Luxor, Egypt.

Mona Vardi’s abstract paintings are courageous and forceful. Colour explosions immerse the canvas in saturated layers of texture and tone. Gravity pushes and pulls at the paint so that you lose your sense of direction falling headlong into the vivacious world that is Mona’s distinct vision.

Works at Nūn Art Gallery:

Exhibited at the Exhibition "Athir - Ethereal Journey"
at Nūn Art Gallery in February/March 2021

Mona Vardi uses a multitude of organic materials to create vibrant dream spaces in her artworks. Pigments and powdered stones are mixed and poured on top of paint and collages as liquid substances. They serve to find new means of expression and expand into a poetic charm. Upon completion, the work has explored the genesis of the materials, the characteristics of the colours and dissolved itself by preserving the traces of its traversed path like the worldly stigma of experience. Colour in all its possible values defines itself as a true visual highly textured surface.


Click to enlarge Cyanic Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 6,000 EGP	Click to enlarge Extramundane I Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 6,000 EGP	Click to enlarge Extramundane II Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm SOLD

Click to enlarge Mneme I Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 8,600 EGP	Click to enlarge Ortanique Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 8,600 EGP	Click to enlarge Mneme II Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 8,600 EGP

Click to enlarge The Sensitive Dress Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 8,600 EGP	Click to enlarge Mystery I Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 8,600 EGP	Click to enlarge Heart in Free Fall Mixed Media 90 x 70 cm 8,600 EGP

Click to enlarge Mystery II Diptychon Mixed Media 140 x 70 cm 11,500 EGP

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Mona Vardi's mythological sculptures bring the presence of ancient Egyptian cow goddess Hathor into Nūn Art Gallery. In her work, Mona assembles a wide range of materials including bones, skins and roots. She transforms them into shamanic artworks to embrace the essence of the divine in femininity. This procedure becomes a vital part of letting Hathor enter a new century. This approach rises relevant questions of what once was and what today is. The sculptures come from a highly symbolic nature and touch on different themes such as mortality, spirituality, value and balance. A distinct entity is formed by connecting organic elements with human-made metallic structures. The pillars of bones become strong representations of a new body. By combining buffalo skin and golden painted horns with valuable jewellery the figures emit a radiant energy.


Click to enlarge Hathor I Metal, Buffalo Bones, Horns, Gesso, Roots about 200 cm height 17,200 EGP	Click to enlarge Hathor II Metal, Buffalo Bones, Horns, Gesso, Roots about 200 cm height 17,200 EGP	Click to enlarge Hathor III Metal, Buffalo Bones, Horns, Teeth about 220 cm height 17,200 EGP

Click to enlarge Return of Hathor I Metal, Buffalo Bones, Skulls, Roots about 200 cm height 14,300 EGP	Click to enlarge Return of Hathor II Metal, Buffalo Bones, Skulls, Roots about 200 cm height 14,300 EGP	Click to enlarge Spirit of Amshir Metal, Buffalo Skins about 200 cm height 12,900 EGP

Click to enlarge Nemesis Buffalo Skin, Horns, Gesso 90 x 60 cm SOLD	Click to enlarge Guardian of Harmony Metal, Bones, Horns 50 x 180 cm 17,200 EGP

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Exhibitions:

1982-1985: Group Exhibitions at the galleries Octave Negru, Nina Daussel and
Hervé Odermatt, Paris, France
1984: Foire internationale d’art contemporain (FIAC), Paris, France
2016: Group Exhibition, Gehag Forum, Berlin, Germany
2016: Solo Exhibition Farbfluss, colour flow – colour blow,
Erzählwerkstatt, Berlin, Germany
2017: Group Exhibition, Friendly Society, Berlin, Germany
2018: Group Exhibition International Upper Egypt Salon, Faculty of Fine Arts,
Luxor
2019: Group Exhibition Daughters of the Nile, Luxor Art Gallery, Luxor
2020: Group Exhibition Luxor University African Forum 2020 Exhibition, Luxor
2021: Double Exhibition with Brian Flynn: Athir - Ethereal Journey, Nūn Art Gallery, Luxor
2021: Nūn Art Gallery Luxor, Summer Collection 2021
2022: Nūn Art Gallery Luxor, Retrospective 2022

Press:

On occasion of the Athir exhibition with Mona Vardi at Nūn Art Gallery, Haggag Salama wrote an article about the artist, which was published in Al Arab, UK and in the two Omani newspapers Oman Observer and Meshor.