Heliconia Projects is pleased to present Echoes of the Other, a solo exhibition by Fernando Varela that meditates on duality through the elemental gesture of the line. In Varela’s visual lexicon, the line is not merely a compositional tool but an ontological proposition. It is both origin and boundary, a threshold where presence meets absence, and structure yields to spirit. Each mark inscribes a philosophical tension, invoking the enduring dialogue between matter and meaning.
In this latest series, Straight and Curved, Varela extends his metaphysical inquiry by returning to a fundamental insight: “The only possibility of translating a point in any direction in space can only be in a straight or curved line.” Echoing Paul Klee’s poetic observation: “a line is a dot that went for a walk", Varela reflects on the profound simplicity of these two modes of movement, which underlie all visible and invisible forms. For him, the straight and the curved are not only formal strategies but metaphors for duality itself: rigor, flow, control, and surrender emulate the conscious and the unconscious. From this binary, a vast and nuanced cosmology emerges.
This cosmology finds earlier expression in series such as Form & Void and Worlds. In Form & Void, Varela multiplies ovoid shapes within irregular, softly edged geometries that suggest both containment and expansion. Each hollow form is a symbolic vessel; an abstract echo of the primordial egg—conveying the void not as absence, but as latent potential. In Worlds, inspired by Bo-Yin-Ra’s Book of Beyond, Varela reflects on the idea that what we perceive as reality is only one version among many, shaped by invisible spiritual forces. A single oval form recurs across the series, embodying the unseen energies that structure both physical and metaphysical realms.
Influenced by Jungian concepts of the self and shadow, Varela’s compositions balance intentionality with intuitive emergence. The line becomes a vessel for psychic tension, while the plane expands the gesture into meditative stillness. As such, the works serve both as representations and as metaphors of the deep structural rhythms that govern both inner and outer worlds.
The exhibition is presented within the refined architectural setting of Concept 11, a space whose spatial clarity and restraint resonate with the contemplative discipline of Varela’s practice. The dialogue between artwork and environment invites the viewer into a state of heightened awareness, where perception becomes a form of philosophical inquiry.
Fernando Varela (b. 1951, Montevideo) is a Dominican-Uruguayan artist whose abstract practice spanning painting, sculpture, and installation centres on metaphysical themes and the symbolic language of geometry. Over the course of four decades, he has cultivated a visual language grounded in philosophical thought, sacred architecture, and esoteric systems of meaning. Recent exhibitions include Form and Void, a duo show with Carmen Herrera at Upsilon Gallery in New York (2025); Hotel Warszawa Art Fair with Heliconia Projects (2024); a solo presentation at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo for FIACI Art Fair (2023); and his major retrospective MUNDOS: los tránsitos de Fernando Varela at Centro León in Santiago, Dominican Republic (2021), which offered a comprehensive view of his evolving artistic framework.
