“To create a visual interpretation of an emotion, an abstract idea or movement, to reach its essence; the image is stripped of realism and of any superfluous detail. Shapes are simplified and clearly defined. Most of my abstracts have a human element, and most of my people and emotions are handled in abstract form. I choose stones for their magnificent colors, and they frequently dictate what the image will be.”
— Varda Yoran
TRIBUTE TO MAGDALENA TRUEL (2021) Situated in Yitzhak Rabin Park, Miraflores, Lima Peru. This educated and brave Peruvian young woman living in Paris defied the Nazis during their occupation in her own personal ways. She wrote articles against the occupation for the underground press. She forged documents and ID cards to save lives, largely for Jews trying to escape. She saved infants, toddlers and children, led them to safety and they all survived. She did not. She was captured, tortured and sent to a concentration camp. She died on the death march just hours before they were liberated. I symbolized all she had done. She is sitting confident and defiant on a pile of books, holding her weapon – a huge realistic pen. At the base she is surrounded by children’s footprints in the cement, leading them to safety. Her footprints disappear in the cement. There is no face on the monument because nobody knew her identity until she was discovered in the archives in Paris in 2006.
AGONY (1991) Accepted by Resistance Fighters Museum in Israel for permanent exhibit. It depicts a person in agony lying on a pile of railroad ties. With his clenched fist, he conveys his resistance in the Holocaust despite his pain.
FAMILY (2007) Commissioned and standing on permanent exhibit at Rabin Medical Center in Israel, in front of the cancer building. A tall straight shape, a soft curved one leaning towards it, and a little shape connects the two, turning a couple into a family.
SHOAH AND REVIVAL (2004) Commissioned and standing on permanent exhibit at Tel-Aviv Aviv University campus. This image of a person crossing over a pile of the destruction of a book, tombstone with Hebrew letters, parts of a rooftop, and kitchen countertop and all the destruction, looking back and remembering and posing ahead towards the future. For this sculpture, I received an HONORARY FELLOWSHIP from Tel-Aviv University.
TAI CHI (2001) Accepted by Tel-Aviv University for a permanent exhibit on the campus. That is one of the traditional martial arts usually practiced in parks and open spaces, though in groups, each one at their individual pace.
VALOR IN FLIGHT (2007) Commissioned and standing at Israel Air Force Center in Herzliah, Israel. It represents the takeoff and flight patterns of the planes in the air force – a bomber carrier, helicopter, a fighter, and a rocket. They are all based on a blue star of David surrounded by a circle of shrubs. It shoots up 15 feet.
Varda Yoran is a Brooklyn based sculptor. She was born and raised in China to Jewish parents who emigrated from Russia. Yoran was educated in English at the Jewish School in Tientsin, where she demonstrated an affinity for artmaking, and was exposed to various cultures and languages from a young age. She moved to Israel in 1949, where she spent the next 27 years, working in various positions such as staff member for the Jerusalem Post, teacher of Hebrew in an immigrants’ camp, and graphic designer for a prestigious art studio, among others.
Yoran and her family relocated first to London for a brief 2-year period, and then eventually to New York. She attended several seminars in Art Therapy at the New School for Social Research and was also a student at the Art Students League. In 1979, she started formally studying sculpture with Aline Geist in Long Island. During this period, her art practice gradually transitioned from painting towards sculpture, which has been the primary focus of her artistic production ever since.
Her work as an artist is permeated by the different cultures she has been exposed to throughout her life: Chinese, Russian, English, Jewish, Japanese. Furthermore, her art can be considered as an exploration of the convergence between these different cultures, as well as the impact they’ve had on the artist’s life. She works with various media, such as stone, wood, clay, bronze, and Lucite; as well as in a range of sizes, as exemplified by her large outdoor sculptures, which reach up to 15 ft. in height.
Varda’s work as an artist has been featured in numerous group exhibitions. She also had individual exhibitions in the United States and Israel. In 1996, she was honored with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award, presented by the American Jewish Congress Commission for Women’s Equality. She has been interviewed by multiple media outlets, including Shirley Romaine’s TV segment titled, “Artschene” on Long Island. Varda was also awarded with an Honorary Fellowship by Tel-Aviv University in 2016.