Dairo Vargas is a Colombian-born, London based painter whose work explores memory, trauma, and the transformative power of the past, how what we have lived shapes, distorts, and ultimately defines who we become.
Working in dialogue with the European Baroque tradition, particularly Rubens and Velázquez, Vargas builds his paintings through layers, accumulating, obscuring, and revealing in a process that mirrors memory itself. His work holds the tension between abstraction and figuration, between the weight of history and the fluid nature of the self. Works are held in private collections worldwide. Represented by Maddox Gallery, London.
"If our memories give us a sense of moving through time, which of them truly define who we are — and what it means to be alive?" — Dairo Vargas
Education
2008 HNC Fine Art, Kensington and Chelsea College
2014 Metal and Sculpture Summer Course Central Saint Martins
2004 BA Graphic Design, Unitec University, Bogota, Colombia
Solo Exhibitions
2025 — Maddox Gallery, London, UK
2023 — Maddox Gallery, London, UK
2023 — Canali, London, UK
2022 — Signet Gallery, London, UK
2021 — Signet Gallery, London, UK
2018 — In Spaces, London, UK
2018 — Barclays Bank, London, UK
2017 — Ambassadeur Gallery, Bournemouth, UK
2016 — Mindcollision Coya, London, UK
Group Exhibitions
2025 — Maddox Gallery, London, UK
2024 — Maddox Gallery, London, UK
2023 — Maddox Gallery, London, UK
2023 — Eclectic Gallery, London, UK
2022 — Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London, UK
2022 — Signet Gallery, London, UK
2022 — The Light Box Gallery, Surrey, UK
2022 — Eclectic Gallery, London, UK
2020 — Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London, UK
2020 — Dogtooth Fine Art Gallery, Cheshire, UK
2020 — Via Art Prize, London, UK
2019 — Museum del Marletto, Italy
2019 — Black Water Gallery, Cardiff, UK
2019 — Moniker Art Fair, London, UK
2019 — Affordable Art Fair, Hong Kong
2018 — M1 Fine Art Gallery, London, UK
2018 — Kensington and Chelsea College, London, UK
2018 — Affordable Art Fair, London, UK
2018 — LA Modern + Contemporary, USA
2017 — The VIA Arts Prize, Brazilian Embassy, London, UK
2017 — Cloud Gallery, London, UK
2017 — Underdog Gallery, London, UK
2017 — Cambridge Art Fair, UK
Collections
Alfardan Group - 2023
World Health Organisation WHO - 2019
Wish Foundation - Qatar - 2019
Liverpool Football Club
Faithless - Maxi Jazz
Baroness Gloria Hooper
Michael Portillo
Vargas is also the founder of The Art Listens, a global initiative exploring art as a tool for trauma and mental health.