Felice Varini

Nine dancing triangles - by Felice Varini, showing view from the vantage point (top photo), and two views from outside the vantage point (two photos, bottom). France, 2012.

Felice Varini (born in Locarno in 1952) is a Paris-based, Swiss artist who was nominated for the 2000/2001 Marcel Duchamp Prize. Mostly known for his geometric perspective-localized paintings in rooms and other spaces, using projector-stencil techniques, according to mathematics professor and art critic Joël Koskas, "A work of Varini is an anti-Mona Lisa."

5 Open Ellipses. Urban painting of Felice Varini, in Metz, 2009.

Felice paints on architectural and urban spaces, such as buildings, walls and streets. The paintings are characterized by one vantage point from which the viewer can see the complete painting (usually a simple geometric shape such as circle, square, line), while from other view points the viewer will see ‘broken’ fragmented shapes. Varini argues that the work exists as a whole - with its complete shape as well as the fragments. “My concern,” he says “is what happens outside the vantage point of view.”^[1]

References

1. Interview with Felice Varini (Poetic Mind, 2008, paragraph 12.)

External links

• Home page (French)
  • Artist's rationale (English)
• Interview and images (English)
• Critique by Joël Koskas (French; translate to English)
• Selection of perspective space paintings
• Felice Varini Year-By-Year: short chronology of works (English)