Wanda Stella Varriale
(1923-1997)
Best known for her still life, portraiture, and landscape, Wanda Varriale was born in New York City on October 2, 1923. Varriale lived and worked in Teaneck for most of her adult life. She studied at the Arts Students League in New York under nationally known painters Louis Bouche, Julian Levi, Sidney Dickinson, Joseph Hirsch, Bruce Dorfman, Richard Mayhew, and Vincent Malta. She also studied with Helen Wolfe at her New York studio. As well as giving private lessons, she taught art the Studio 5 Art Center/Gallery in Teaneck. Varriale was a Life Member of the Art Students League, the Fellow of American Artists Professional League of New York, the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, the Bergen County Artists Guild (Trustee and Program Chairperson), the Salute to Women in the Arts, and the Portrait Society of New Jersey. She was the recipient of more than forty awards including the Gold Medal for oils with the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club of New York (the Heydenryk Frame Award and the Robert Simmons Brush Award), an Honorable Mention with the Knickerbocker Artists of New York, and a Best In Show with the Bergen County Artists Guild. Varriale exhibited at the Bergen Community Museum (three person show) 1978 and (Bergen County Artists Guild Tri-state Exhibitions) 1975 and 1977, the Jersey City Museum (New Jersey Award-winner Show) 1970, the Montclair Art Museum 1964, the Newark Museum (American Artists Professional League 1968, the Hammond Museum of New York, the American Artists Professional League of New York (Grand Central Galleries) 1977 and (Lever House) 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973, the New Jersey Painters and Sculptors 1971, the Knickerbocker Artists Annual 1971, the National Arts Club Annual 1968, 1969, the Allied Artists of America Annual 1967, the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club (National Academy of Design and National Arts Club) 1962 through 1977, and the A.C.A. Galleries, New York City Annual Competition for a First New York Show 1957, 1958, 1959. Solo exhibitions were at the La Galleria, Abraham & Strauss, the Bergen County Players Theater, the Upper Saddle River Theater, the Unitarian Church, Paramus, the Tenafly Library, the Teaneck Theater, and the Englewood Hospital. Regional exhibitions at the Hunterdon Art Center, the Edward Williams College, AAPL the Caldwell College, AAPL, the Art Centre of the Oranges, the Ringwood Manor Art Association, the Portrait Society of New Jersey, and the Ridgewood Art Association. From askart.com. Written and submitted October, 2004, by Bob Higgins. She died on March 17, 1997 in Teaneck, New Jersey.
