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Claudia Vargas (born September 18,1959) is a Franco-Colombian contemporary artist known for her innovative techniques in mixed media and neo-expressionist style that draws inspiration from children’s drawings. She lives and works in both New York City and was previously based in Montfort l'Amaury.

Biography
Vargas was born in Bogota, Colombia in 1959. She travelled across The U.S. and South America at 17 and completed high school in Cypress. California. Vargas received her MFA from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1985. She has been actively involved in international residencies, having completed a one month residency in Tibet at the studio of Master Tsering Wangchok and a two month residency at The Cholamandal Artists' Village in India. Influences include Matisse, whose minimalist charcoal drawings have informed her aesthetic, and Egon Schiele, with his astute humanist treatment of marginal subjects.

Career
Vargas' exhibitions include La Maison de l'Amerique Latine, Galerie A.S in Knokke le Zoute, De Fabriek in Eindhoven and the Durst Organization in New York as well as the acclaimed group exhibition Polarities curated by the late Willoughby Sharp. Vargas has produced works in oil paint, mixed media, glow in the dark media with retroreflective glass beads, encaustic, cellophane collage, and large scale drawings. Across her career her work has explored static social structures, remnants of colonial oppression in Latin American society, human capacity for wartime atrocity and simultaneous innocence, consumer culture and ecology, and most recently the constructive energy of youth and play. Her work has been written about in Cambio 16, New York Magazine, and The American Journal of Germany. An interview with Louise Bourgeois discussing Claudia's work was included in “La Rivière Gentille,” a film by Brigitte Cornand.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

 * 2011: “Claudia Vargas 2007-2010” Curated by Cassandra Smithies, organized by Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation and WARC, NYC
 * 2006: “X-Ray” 52nd. St. Studios, New York, NY
 * 2003: Ground Zero Performance, New York, NY
 * Durst Organization, curated by L.L. Powers, New York, NY
 * Dietz Gallery, New York, NY
 * 2002: 111 Hudson Studio, curated by Willoughby Sharp, New York, NY
 * Toast Exhibition, New York, NY
 * 2001: Toast Exhibiton, New York, NY
 * 2000: Le Reservoir, Paris, France
 * Cillart Gallery, Adainville, France
 * 1999: Le Reservoir, Paris, France
 * Alliance Française, Bogota, Colombia
 * 1997: Maison de l'Amérique Latine Gallery, organized by French 2. Claudia Vargas
 * Ministries of Culture and Unesco, Paris, France
 * 1995: Centre Culturel de Montfort l'Amaury, France
 * 1991: Galerie A.S.,Knokke le Zoute, Belgium
 * Galerie Bernanos, Paris
 * 1989: Galerie Noraby, Paris, France
 * 1988: Galerie Bernanos, Paris, France
 * 1986: Centre Culturel de Meudon, Meudon, France
 * 1983: "De Fabriek", Eindhoven, Holland
 * 1982: Centre Culturel "Vierspan", Deurne, Holland

Selected Group Exhibitions

 * 2012: Underline Gallery, NYC
 * Westbeth Gallery, NYC
 * 2011: Printed Matter, NYC
 * “99% Show” Chelsea Art Museum, NYC
 * “No Comment”, Loft in the Red Zone”, NYC
 * 2010: Group Show 2010, Westbeth Gallery, NYC
 * 2007: “The Bridge Art Fair”, Debbie Ross Fine Art, Miami, Florida
 * 2003: "POLARITIES", Durst Organization, New York, curated by
 * Willoughby Sharp (16 artists exhibition with Joan Jonas, Marisol, Dennis Oppenheim, Keith Sonnier, Tom Warren, Jene Highstein, Michelle Oka Doner, John Ahearn, Tom Otterness, & Lawrence Weiner)
 * 2001: "Take Heart", MPI Gallery, New York, NY
 * Unesco,Paris, France
 * 1999: Benefit Auction for Earthquake Victims, Horta Auctions, Brussels, Belgium
 * 1999: Exhibition in the Hall of Montparnasse train station, Paris
 * 1995: Budapest International Art Expo, Budapest, Hungary
 * III International Contemporary Art ExhibART/MA, Budapest, Hungary
 * 1994: Budapest International Art Expo, Budapest, Hungary
 * 4 Latin American Painters, Yerres Cultural Center, France
 * Peintres et Sculpteursrs Latinoaméricains d'Europe, Centre Culturel Artistique d'Uccle, Brussels , Belgium
 * Galerie Bernanos, Paris, France
 * 1986: Salon des Independants, Paris, France
 * 1985: Galerie Bernanos, Paris, France
 * 1984: "Manipulations" Elancourt Cultural Center, France
 * 1981: Founder "19eme Art", Paris, France
 * "Galerie Maison des Beaux Arts", Paris, France
 * 1980: "Regard 80". Contemporary Art Museum, Caen, France

Selected Collections

 * Fondation pour lʼArt Contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon, France
 * Florent Pagny, France
 * Pagny/Caamano, Comodoro, Argentina
 * Dikhoff, Sneek, Netherlands
 * Wagner, Stuttgart, Germany
 * Garcia Márquez, Samper, Colombia
 * Goldfarb, Pincus, Cooperman, USA