Artist Biography

Born and raised in Central New York, Warner Varno is an interdisciplinary artist based in Syracuse, NY. Her drawings, paintings, and mixed media collages explore changing identities and the personal narrative. Varno is currently focused on developing her embodied somatic painting practice and presencing through the visual arts. Varno explores the physical properties of acrylic, water, gravitational pull, and movement, in communion with the body and the breath, and with a focus on listening; combining mindfulness and art-making.

Varno practices connecting with an embodied spirituality through the art-making process, without preconceived notions or the creation of conscious narratives. In this way, her artwork can be born and developed within its physical properties and with her hands and body as a co-collaborator. Varno sees this as a form of “truth-telling,” in collaboration with writing short stories based on her lived experiences growing up in Central New York’s Finger Lakes Region, living out West for nearly two decades, in Colorado and California, until returning to New York to live closer to her family and create a physical location for her Time for Art programs in Auburn, NY.  

Following her study with the artist Joan Moment, Varno was on the path of creating large-scale paintings of organic abstraction, and she began to consider teaching within the visual arts. Varno continued her graduate-level studies with Cynthia Ross, Sharon Siskin, and JuPong Lin through Goddard College. Warner presented her graduating portfolio, Respiro en Relationship: An Embodied Somatic Painting Practice and Presencing through the Visual Arts, in July of 2022. Varno received her MA in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Denver, focused on impressionism and visual culture. Varno attended  SUNY Potsdam with a double major in fine art, focusing on drawing and painting, and anthropology with a concentration in historical archaeology. 

Varno has been teaching visual art since 2000 and maintained a drawing, painting, and mixed media studio in South Central Denver (2002-2016) where she created her artwork and taught portfolio preparation for students applying to the Denver School of the Arts. Teaching for Academia Ana Marie Sandoval and Denver’s East High School were two of the highlights of Varno’s K-12 teaching life. Varno currently teaches visual arts for North Syracuse public schools.

A master teaching artist for the last twenty-two years; exhibiting and gallery member artist, and creator of the Japan Birds Project that generates scholarships for her Time for Art fine art programs.  Warner’s work changed significantly when she studied Yoga teacher training in 2010 and experienced a visceral understanding of the human body at a cadaver lab in the Denver area.  After this experience, Warner dove deeply into studying human anatomy and the body’s chakras, bringing attention to healing into her body’s work, resulting in several mixed media artworks; Organ-Santos Series, Between Heaven and Earth, House-Nest, Celebration, and Chakra series. 

Most recently, Varno has exhibited with the MFAIA-WA cohort in her graduate MFAIA program through Goddard College (July 2020-July 2022) with four consecutive online exhibitions, with Artisan Gallery as one of four artists in an online exhibition, “Art Connects Us All” (summer of 2020,) and “Anatomy of Hope” with Artisan Gallery (February of 2019,) featuring several bodies of work including the Chakra Series and House Nest Series as well as Between Heaven and Earth and Landlocked. 

Upon relocating to Skaneateles, NY, in 2017, Varno was a member and exhibiting artist at Gallery 54 in Skaneateles, NY, exhibiting “Both Sides Now” at the Maxwell Memorial Library in Camillus, NY (summer 2017,) and “Anatomy of the Spirit” (October, 2016) at Gallery Julius at the Schweinfurth Art Center.  Varno has been chosen as an exhibiting artist for the juried SKARTS annual art show and fundraiser (2017-2019.) 

Before returning to the Central New York area, Varno was an annual exhibiting artist with Zip37 Gallery in Denver, CO, creating “Anatomy of Change” (February 2017) before returning to live in Central New York. Varno also exhibited her “Organ Santos” series at the Expressive Arts Institute in San Diego, CA, and at the Martha Swift Gallery in Point Loma, CA; a large retrospective called “Bright Wings” (May 2012,) featuring her Chakra Series, House-Nest, and the complete Japan Birds Project paintings.

A recent interview with Warner and Artisan Gallery’s Jenny Chang:  

Art Connects Us All In Dialog with Warner Varno

Exhibition: Anatomy of Hope

Exhibitions 

MFAIA-WA, Goddard College Online, and In-Person Graduating Portfolio Presentation: Presencing Through the Visual Arts, July 2022,  

MFAIA-WA, Goddard College Online, and In-Person Exhibition: Water and Stone: Building Decolonial Living Bridges An Exhibit of Interdisciplinary Art MFAIA-WA (online exhibit website developer, co-curator, and exhibiting artist)

MFAIA-WA, Goddard College Online Exhibition, Spring 2022 (online exhibit website developer, co-curator, opening online event planner, and exhibiting artist)

MFAIA-WA, Goddard College Online Exhibition, Fall 2021 (online exhibit website developer, co-curator, opening online event planner, and exhibiting artist)

MFAIA-WA, Goddard College Online Exhibition, Spring 2021 (online exhibit website developer, co-curator, and exhibiting artist)

MFAIA-WA, Goddard College Online Exhibition, Fall 2020 

ARTISAN GALLERY, Broom Cty. Arts Council, Binghamton, NY “Art Connects Us All” A Virtual Exhibition, 06/2020

MFAIA-WA, Goddard College Online Exhibition, Spring 2020 

SKARTS Annual Juried Art Show, Skaneateles, NY 07/2017, 07/2018, 07/2019

GALLERY 54, Skaneateles, NY, exhibiting member artist 09/2017 - 09/2018

Maxwell Memorial Library; Camillus, NY “Both Sides Now.”  07/2018

ZIP37 Gallery “Anatomy of Change” Show 01/2017

Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center “Anatomy of the Spirit” 10/2016

ZIP37 Gallery “Time for Art” Show 01/2016

ZIP37 Gallery “Friends of a Feather” Show 05/2015

MARTHA SWIFT GALLERY, “Bright Wings” Show 08/2012 - 10/2012

NEXT Gallery, “Put A Bird on It!” Birds Invitational Show 04/2012

NEXT Gallery, Between Heaven and Earth, solo show 11/2011

LA Japanese American National Museum, LABBIT SHOW 07/2011

THE GOTTHELF ART GALLERY, Invitational Passover Show 03/2011

NEXT Gallery, LANDLOCKED, solo show 11/2010

MARTHA SWIFT GALLERY, NTC, San Diego, CA, Connecting the Dots 07/2010

SYNC GALLERY, Wabi Sabi Show 06/2010

CORE NEW ART SPACE, WOW Show 05/2010

NEXT GALLERY, New Members Show 01/2010

NEXT GALLERY, Members Show 12/2009

EUROPA, Anatomy of Ghosts, 03/2009

EUROPA, Current Painted Works, 03-04/08

HOOKED ON COLFAX, Gutted Books, 05/08

DELECTIBLE EGG, Through Their Eyes; Oil Pastel Paintings, 01/08

HOOKED ON COLFAX, Altars of Anatomy, 12/07

CAFÉ ON TENNYSON, Dia De Los Muertos; Memorial Mural, 11/07FANCY TIGER, Inside Out; Gutted Books, 02/07

THEATRE ON TENNYSON; Holiday Show, 12/06

SPARROW, Wall Sculpture, 11/04

MISS TALULAH’S, Artifacts and Arrangements, 11/03

MINE, Group Show, Jeweled Escapement Series, 11/03

Artist Publication

Binghamton ART GUIDE 2020 Edition

Artist Program

Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC.  You Are Here: Mapping Our Stories.

Received a scholarship to participate in intensive bookbinding, altered books, paper-making, transfer printmaking, and fiber arts workshops in order to build a collection of materials to culminate in mixed media autobiographical works. 

Special Projects

  • SMITTEN is a web-based archive of love/grief spanning twenty years of lived experience.

  • The Mask Project COVID-19 Memorial Quilt, a collaborative project culminating in a sacred space to reflect on the shared experience of the Coronavirus.

  • Medical Poetry Card Illustrations, a collaboration between national and international poets toward a medical poetry card deck used in pre-med literary classes.

Gallery Work

  • Member and exhibiting artist, Gallery 54, Skaneateles, NY 2017

    Create installations and organize and facilitate openings, design member exhibition space and special events, and attend monthly meetings.

  • Member and exhibiting artist, NEXT Gallery and Zip37 Gallery, Denver, CO 2006-2016

    Install artwork, email marketing, and communications for monthly exhibiting artists, organize and facilitate openings, design member exhibition space and special events, sit gallery, manage salon style “store” and attend monthly meetings.

  • ·Curatorial Assistant, Roland-Gibson Art Gallery, SUNY Potsdam, NY 1992-1996

    Rotate and curate drawings, paintings, and print collections.  Install artwork in campus offices and galleries, email marketing and communications for monthly exhibiting artists, send and receive exhibiting artist work, organize and facilitate openings, design exhibitions and organize special events and sit gallery.

Fundraising

  • The Japan Birds Project 2011 - Current

    Design and create small “bird and flower” paintings to reproduce as limited edition matted archival prints to raise money for all children to have access to fine art enrichment classes. (50/100)

  • Annual Scholarship Fundraiser, JCC/ECC of Denver

    Collaborated with thirteen classroom teachers and their students, ages three months to five years to create a piece of original artwork from each classroom to sell at a live auction to raise money for student scholarships.  Coordinated and directed parent volunteers and the acquisition of materials.  

  • Annual Art and Music Fundraiser, Academia Ana Marie Sandoval

Fine Art Teaching

  • Time for Art and Yoga workshops, classes, and camps, CO, CA, and NY 2006 - Current

  • Painting workshops, classes, and camps at The Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY 2015 - Current

  • North Syracuse Central Schools, Cicero, NY 2021-Current

  • Liverpool Central Schools, Liverpool, NY 2017-2020

  • Academia Ana Marie Sandoval, a dual language public Montessori in NW Denver, CO 2006-2016

  • Instructor for Art Appreciation, Red Rocks Community College, Arvada, CO, 2008-2010 

  • Escuela Tlatelolco, a bilingual public Montessori with a focus on social justice, NW Denver, CO 2003-2006

  • Montessori School of Denver and Monart School of the Arts, Denver, CO 2001-2003,

Education             

  • MFAIA Goddard College, in progress

  • University of Denver, MA in Curriculum and Instruction, K-12 Art Teaching License

  • Instituto de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, MX: studied local ceramics and artisan crafts, Spanish language and culture

  • El Mundo en español, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala; Spanish language immersion in a family home with intercambio

  • Sacramento State, Graduate Painting and Contemporary Women Studio Artists

  • University of California at Davis, hand-building with clay

  • SUNY Potsdam, BA Fine Art and Anthropology