A few weeks ago, Galerie C.O.A hosted the opening of Mathilde Varanese’s solo exhibition, the latest recipient of the Altitude/C Grant. This initiative is designed to uplift emerging artists and invigorate the local art scene. The vernissage buzzed with emotion, laughter, and rich conversation, as an enthusiastic crowd came together to celebrate the next generation of contemporary creators.
As Altitude/C celebrates 25 years of creation, collaboration, and bold event concepts, the agency wanted to mark the milestone by shining a spotlight on a local talent. The Altitude/C Grant for Contemporary Art offers an emerging artist the rare and formative experience of their first solo show in a professional gallery.
More than just exhibition space, the grant provides support for production, promotion, materials, and the time needed to create. It also covers vernissage costs and ensures the artist receives meaningful visibility.
At Altitude/C, contemporary art holds a special place. It inspires us. We admire the daring spirit of artists, their ability to make us think differently and see life from new angles. Art is a reflection of society and of ourselves, seen through a lens that enriches our approach to event design. - Thomas Giraudo
Mathilde Varanese holds a bachelor's degree in visual and media arts from UQÀM. She has received the Pierre Luc d’Orsonnens Scholarship and the Jacques-de-Tonnancour Excellence Award. In 2024, she participated in the artch festival and the Singuliers Art Fair, presented with Fonderie Darling. The year prior, she was part of Comme un bruit de métal at Projet Casa, supported by the Conseil des arts de Longueuil, which also awarded her the Desjardins Emerging Artist Prize.
Deeply engaged in the arts community, Mathilde serves as Coordinator of Exhibitions and Publications at the Fondation Giverny. From 2017 to 2024, she worked as Programming Assistant at Plein sud and co-created the cultural podcast Point Bleu with Occurrence, an artist-run center.
About her artistic practice, she explains : "My work stems from a fascination with artistic figures who use ornamentation as a tool for communication. From Derrida to Dalida, flamboyant clothing helps construct a public persona that influences everyday gestures. Extreme extravagance seems to legitimize their status as artists, while the spectacle masks their nervousness. My work explores the tension between extravagant self-performance in social spaces and the erasure of intimacy behind that persona, along with the ways these two aspects can overlap.
With self-deprecating humor, I adopt the stance of a dandy to subvert my own impostor syndrome. I investigate the boundaries between my private life and my artistic identity, trying to define what authenticity might mean in both realms. This duality emerges in the transformable nature of my projects, where I use textile sculpture and printed imagery to build connections between the functional, symbolic, and performative nature of the objects I create.
The physical ambiguity of these objects calls for a back-and-forth between garment and representation, to better understand their actual materiality. These candy-colored, playful trompe-l’oeil works invite reflection on the stories embedded in clothing. When my socks become oversized or solitary, they drift away from their conventional attributes, and their inventory reveals how my artistic concerns have seeped into my wardrobe.
I also explore the narrative potential of clothing through the figure of the ghost. Just as a ghost only becomes visible when draped in a shroud, I appear and vanish through what I wear. Once removed, the garment becomes a remnant of me, a cloth once animated by my body. In this way, I grant clothing the power both to express and to conceal me. With a deliberately casual tone, I dissect garments to insert fiction into the everyday and to spark a satirical reflection on the performative roles that shape our realities."
Temple de la renommée : burn out country club
In March, Mathilde Varanese announced her decision to retire after a short but unforgettable athletic career. The entire community agreed that she deserves a place in the Hall of Fame. She made her mark on the highly coveted and undeniably legendary Burn Out Country Club.
Cet honneur, ô combien mérité, sera souligné par une immersion rétrospective dans la carrière de l’athlète : une traversée entre médailles et archives, témoins des affrontements acharnés et des engagements passionnés qui ont jalonné son parcours.
This well-deserved honor is being recognized through a retrospective journey into her career, a path lined with medals and archives that reflect the intense challenges and passionate commitments she embraced along the way. People will remember the brilliance of Mathilde Varanese's work, her vibrant and powerful performances, where every movement felt shaped by disciplined training. Her way of commanding space and asserting her presence on the field was masterful.
More than anything, history will remember her resilience. After a hard fall in the winter of 2024, she returned to her practice with renewed intensity. The injury caused painful sprains, but she worked through them with quiet determination during nine months of recovery.
During this forced break, her resolve became unmistakable. While others might have stepped away, she found herself drawn into the world of contemporary art. She was selected for an exhibition, which she transformed into a space for exploration. This turning point became foundational. She stood out as the only one in her generation to gain such recognition at the Club. She trained without rest, shaping a body of work that stood alongside the best in the field.
Although she was an elite athlete in a world that often appears polished and glamorous, Mathilde always remained close to her roots. She combined the tension of high performance with rare emotional depth. Her toughest opponent was an internal one: performance anxiety, sudden and unpredictable, like an unexpected smash. Yet whether in the arena or the gallery, she always managed to come out on top.
Alone, perhaps. But never defeated.
If people can see how absurd constant productivity and the need to win can be, I’ll be truly happy. - Mathilde Varanesse
The exhibition took place at Galerie C.O.A, providing Mathilde Varanese with a vibrant setting to present her artistic world.
The contemporary art gallery C.O.A opened its doors in Montréal in May 2014. While the gallery is committed to showcasing emerging talent, it also places great importance on exhibiting the work of artists with intellectual and physical disabilities, often referred to as "outsiders." The space features a roster of both Canadian and international artists who challenge established conventions and offer new ways of seeing. What unites them is their singular approach to creation. This is the spirit behind the gallery's name: C.O.A, or Créateurs d’Œuvres Atypiques.
Congratulations once again to Mathilde Varanese for this inspiring journey and well-earned recognition as the recipient of the Altitude/C Grant. A heartfelt thank you to Galerie C.O.A, the jury members, and everyone who attended and helped make this vernissage such a bright and memorable moment. This event reminds us of the importance of continuing to support emerging artists. It is through this support that we build a bold and thriving artistic community.
We invite you to follow Mathilde Varanese on social media to discover her projects and upcoming works.
