Condition I - VI
MASSIMODECARLO is pleased to present Condition I-VI and Blue Room, two distinct yet interwoven exhibitions by Paloma Varga Weisz and Sophie von Hellermann, marking Varga Weisz’s first solo presentation in Hong Kong and the first-ever collaboration between the two artists. Conceived as parallel acts within a single narrative, the exhibitions unfold across adjoining rooms: one introspective and sculptural, the other theatrical and immersive.
The first room is dedicated entirely to Paloma Varga Weisz and her Condition I–VI - a series of six ceramic heads that at first appear almost identical, but slowly reveal their differences. The first five sculptures depict the same subject repeated across different days, colours, and moods. Subtle shifts in expression, the pressure of a fingertip here, a dent in the clay there, suggest variations not in identity, but in state. It’s less a portrait than a process, doing the same thing again and again, and watching how it quietly changes. The repetition becomes a form of attention - a way of staying with a form until it reveals its emotional register.
Each head carries its own set of marks, made visible through touch: fingerprints, ridges, and unglazed surfaces that preserve the immediacy of the making. They don’t try to be perfect. Instead, they feel close, not just to the artist, but to the moment they were made. “Same, same, but different”, as Paloma puts it.
The sixth sculpture in the series stands apart. It breaks the rhythm, as this character has distinctively different facial features. While the first five works feel emotionally porous, this figure seems fully present, unyielding, and composed. It doesn’t belong to the same emotional loop as the others, and that’s precisely the point. Paloma describes it as a “disturbing element” in the sequence - not disturbing in appearance, but in its difference. A kind of interruption.
She created it while reflecting on her first time exhibiting in Asia - a personal invitation toward a culture she does not yet know. As with many of her sculptures, there’s a sense that these figures have arrived from another time - ancient, maybe sacred, but also unmistakably contemporary. They hold a kind of stillness that belongs only to the present.
Also on view
Also on view
The Artist
Paloma Varga Weisz (b. 1966, Mannheim, Germany) lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.Varga Weisz's artistic journey is influenced by familial ties, formal woodcarving training, and a nuanced exploration of various artistic expressions. She employs sculpture, watercolour, and drawing to delve into profound themes such as memory, mortality, and psychology. Her creations, whether on paper or three-dimensional, serve as extensions of her body and mind.
Steeped in a legacy of artistic inspiration, her father, Feri Varga, a Hungarian artist, played a pivotal role in shaping her early artistic inclination. Her father's stories of an unconventional life alongside luminaries like Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso fuelled her innate artistic inclination from a tender age.
As described by writer and art critic Jennifer Higgie: "Varga Weisz’s sculptures and works on paper acknowledge the uncensored daydreams of contemporary life; the kind that drift between the present, the future and the past with an ease that makes time-travellers of us all.”
Varga Weisz's figures, both sculptural and illustrated, encapsulate a myriad of personal and collective motifs, often embracing unconventional and grotesque forms. Motivated by a quest to capture the body’s fleeting nature, the artist’s vocabulary illustrates life with bold symbolism and evolving emotions.