Varriano’s figurative and portraiture paintings display an exceptional talent for delivering unabashed proclamations of the human condition. For Varriano, the blinding beauty of the subject matter is made more exquisite and whole by the dark and hidden material that lies beneath. It is always the shadows, materially and metaphorically, that allow one to see and experience the light.

Varriano’s command of abstract oil painting is otherworldly. He gives his audience a masterful outpouring of explosive forms, shapes, and textures counterbalanced by stark discipline, containment, and restrain. Varriano handles paint and the transmission of ideas with exceptional “grace,” leading one to conclude the higher worlds he captures are his natural habitat. Rather than shock and awe, Varriano delivers only awe. 

Artistic Roots

John Varriano was born into a family of artists and artisans. His father Angelo was a brilliant abstract sculptor and inventor. Both his maternal and paternal uncles expressed considerable artistic prowess. And his paternal grandfather Giovanni was an exceptionally talented artisan who spent much of his later years creating large, classically proportioned vases inlaid with exquisitely intricate mosaics.

His cousin, John, who shares the same first and last name, is a teacher at The Arts Students League in New York City.  A younger cousin Jon is a highly respected commercial graphic designer, and a distant cousin John is an art historian and author of books on Caravaggio, Baroque Architecture, and Art.

Early Years

Immersed in the arts from an early age, Varriano has been drawing, painting and sculpting since childhood. His introduction to artists' tools came about at the age of five. A family member recalls how “The passionate young artist showed his father a series of play-doh figures he made. Unimpressed with the medium, his father took him to Manhattan’s art district to purchase oil paints, sculpting clay, art pencils, and implements." From that point onward, Varriano would spend much of his youth and young adulthood in his father’s studio, honing his artistic skills. He credits his father with instilling a taste for top-notch materials and the importance of gaining knowledge through experimentation with various applications and techniques.

Abstract Oil Paintings

Illuminating higher states of consciousness, John Varriano provides the visual landscape that allows us to witness and cultivate a dialogue with the transcendent spirit dwelling within.

Higher mathematics, physics, color, shape, harmony, and music play significant roles in these creations. Varriano shows us worlds dwelling within worlds, the interplay of form and movement, and life pulsing through hardened stone as atoms move, collide, and reorient themselves. He reveals the secrets of antiquity and prophecies for the future layered upon one another. And he shows us what it looks like when the spheres speak, and harmony and lyrics take on material form.

A highly gifted and prolific artist, Varriano has created an important and evocative series of interrelated conceptual categories (Abstract: Crystalism, Dreamology, Figurativism, Metamorphism, Spiritism, and Structuralism) that symbolize progressive developments and flowering of abstract art.

Figurative Oil Paintings

Varriano’s figurative works plunge us into the depths of the psyche. These paintings spark a more profound understanding of the human condition and act as a mirror for the ever-evolving development of the soul.

Peering into the cool depths of a deal-maker's eyes, we discover the calm composure that plays a powerful role in successful negotiations. Journeying with commuters to and from work, we experience the daily grind that wears us out and the random impetuses that awaken and remind us that we are alive. Privy to people's private, domestic rituals, we gain a more intimate and personal knowledge of one another. Witnessing the ravaging effects of vice, squalor, and homelessness, we encounter the suffering that cuts deeply into ourselves and our society. 

Contemplating Varriano's many figures, we realize that in observing others so perceptively, we come to a deeper understanding of ourselves.  The human condition is a shared condition. As the soul opens itself to this truth, it becomes more distinctly collective, at the same time, more distinctly individual. We find ourselves that much closer to becoming who we were born to be. 

National and International Recognition

John Varriano was the first artist in more than 50 years to have a painting featured on the cover of the New York Times accompanied by an in-depth article. NBC news dedicated a special television segment on the artist that proved so popular it ran in New York taxi cabs for a month. Globo TV, Brazil’s largest network and ABC.es in Spain have also featured stories on the Varriano. Among other media outlets have been Vanity Fair and Greenwich Time.

Exhibitions

Varriano has exhibited his work in galleries in New York City, Palm Beach and Abu Dhabi.  Since 2024 he is represented globally by Bellaron Gallery, located on the upper east side of Manhattan.