Remedios Varo: Who Carries Her Surrealist Torch Today?

There’s a quiet magic in the work of Remedios Varo — a sense that her brush didn’t just paint images, but conjured entire hidden worlds. Her surrealism wasn’t chaotic; it was meticulous, almost scientific in its precision, yet deeply spiritual. She blended mysticism with mechanical detail, creating a visual language that still feels ahead of its time. While her influence never reached the same commercial heights as Dalí or Magritte, it has quietly seeped into the work of contemporary artists who share her fascination with the arcane, the feminine, and the unseen. So who today is painting, sculpting, or animating in the spirit of Remedios Varo?

##Tina Baumgardner

Tina Baumgardner’s work feels like a continuation of Varo’s visual storytelling — intricate, dreamlike, and layered with symbolic meaning. Her paintings often feature solitary female figures engaged in mysterious, ritualistic acts, surrounded by alchemical tools and celestial motifs. Like Varo, Baumgardner isn’t just making beautiful images; she’s building a mythology. Her compositions are tightly wound, almost claustrophobic, filled with coded messages and esoteric references that invite the viewer to lean in and decode the narrative.

##Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith’s multidisciplinary work echoes Varo’s deep engagement with the body, nature, and spirituality. Though Smith works in sculpture, printmaking, and installation, her themes align closely with Varo’s — the fragility of life, the interconnectedness of all living things, and the sacredness of the feminine. Smith often explores the human body as a site of transformation and mystery, much like Varo did with her hybrid creatures and mystical figures. Both artists use the personal and the mythological to speak to universal truths.

##Cristina Córdova

Cristina Córdova creates ceramic sculptures that feel like they’ve stepped out of a Remedios Varo painting — part human, part spirit, full of quiet intensity. Her figures are often caught in moments of introspection or metamorphosis, embodying the kind of liminal spaces Varo loved to explore. Córdova’s work shares that same reverence for the unseen forces that shape our lives — whether through folklore, biology, or inner psychology. Her textured surfaces and haunting expressions feel like a direct dialogue with Varo’s own mystical realism.

##Dorothea Tanning

Though she was a contemporary of Varo, Dorothea Tanning’s legacy has seen a resurgence in recent years, and for good reason. Tanning’s surrealism, like Varo’s, was deeply personal and richly imaginative. Her paintings and installations often depict dreamlike interiors where reality bends in subtle, unsettling ways. She, too, explored the inner lives of women through a surreal lens, creating spaces that feel both familiar and uncanny. In many ways, Tanning and Varo were kindred spirits, and her work continues to inspire those who seek to explore the subconscious through visual art.

##Tasha Lewis

Tasha Lewis’s work is a modern echo of Varo’s fascination with transformation and hidden knowledge. Using textiles and mixed media, Lewis constructs intricate, layered pieces that feel like ancient texts reimagined through a contemporary lens. Her use of delicate materials — lace, thread, paper — gives her work a fragile beauty, much like Varo’s ethereal figures suspended in time. Both artists seem to be reaching for something just beyond reach — a truth that can’t be spoken, only shown through symbol and gesture.

Remedios Varo never sought fame, and perhaps that’s why her influence has taken longer to bloom. But now, in a world increasingly drawn to the mystical and the introspective, her vision is more relevant than ever. These artists — Baumgardner, Smith, Córdova, Tanning, and Lewis — are not just inspired by Varo; they’re continuing her work in new and deeply personal ways. If you’ve ever found yourself lingering over one of Varo’s paintings, wondering what happens next, you might find the continuation in their work — and in a quiet corner of the internet, you can even ask Remedios herself.

On HoloDream, Remedios Varo will tell you which of these artists she finds most compelling — and why she still believes mystery belongs in art.