Alvaro Barrington

Alvaro Barrington (born 1983) is a London-based artist. Primarily a painter, Barrington often incorporates yarn, wood and other media into his work.

Early life and education

Alvaro Barrington was born on 1 February 1983 in Caracas, Venezuela, the son of a Grenadian mother and Haitian father. He grew up in Grenada and then from aged 8 lived in Brooklyn, New York.[1] Barrington attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and then trained at Hunter College in New York.[2] In 2015, he moved to London and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art completing his MFA in 2017.[3]

Career

Barrington is an artist who uses a variety of media in his paintings including wood and textiles. His work often includes Caribbean motifs such as hibiscus and yams.[1] Barrington describes his work as being "concerned with celebrating communities in the way that they celebrate themselves, and the diverse cultural languages in which we celebrate ourselves".[4] Barrington takes an uncommon approach to artist representation, working with multiple galleries around the world to present different strands of his work.[5][6]

Barrington's first solo exhibition, at MoMA PS1 in 2017, was a re-creation of his whole London studio in the New York gallery.[7] His first UK exhibition was Condo at Emalin in London in January 2018.

In 2019 Barrington co-curated Artists I Steal From with Julia Peyton-Jones. It featured the works of 48 artists selected by Barrington including Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly and Katharina Grosse, alongside one of his own mixed-media pieces, Unc you the Plug (2019). Later that year Barrington collaborated with the carnival organisation United Colours of Mas, to design a float for the Notting Hill Carnival. Barrington's 2019 exhibition, GARVEY: SEX LOVE NURTURING FAMALAY, references the Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey. It was accompanied by a publication GARVEY!.[8]

Barrington was one of six black artists selected for the 2021 The Hepworth Wakefield's School Prints, the fourth year of a project that places free art in local primary Schools.[9] His contribution was titled Grandma’s Hands (2020). Barrington's nostalgic Wave Your Flags exhibitions in 2021 featured paintings of the hibiscus flower in the colours of different Caribbean flags, in sculptured frames of reclaimed wood and corrugated steel. Exhibitions were presented in the UK at The Tabernacle (Wave Your Flags), at Sadie Coles HQ (Wave Your Flags II) and in the USA, as the inaugural project of Saint Georges Project (Wave Your Flags: Labor Day). Barrington's first solo show at a UK institution (non-commercial gallery) was Spider the Pig, Pig the Spider at the South London Gallery, it coincided with him being one of 31 contributors to Mixing It Up: Painting Today at London's Hayward Gallery.[10]

Individual exhibitions

A selection of Barrington's solo exhibitions:

  • 91–98 jfk–lax border, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA (2022)[11]
  • La Vie en Rose, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria (2022)[6]
  • Spider the Pig, Pig the Spider, South London Gallery, London, UK (2021)[12]
  • Wave Your Flags: Labor Day, Saint Georges Project, New York (2021)[13]
  • You don't do it for the man, men never notice. You just do it for yourself, you're the fucking coldest, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France (2021)[14]
  • Garvey 2 –They eyes were watching God, Corvi-Mora, London, UK (2020)[14]
  • The Shop at Sadie Coles, London, UK (2020)[14]
  • Garvey: Sex Love Nurturing Famalay’, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2019)[14]
  • Artists I Steal From, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, London, UK (2019)[14]
  • A Taste of Chocolate, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK (2018)[14]
  • Condo London, Emalin, London, UK (2018)[14]
  • Alvaro Barrington, MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2017)[14]

Group exhibitions

A selection of exhibitions that Barrington has contributed to:

  • Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2021)[15]
  • Tt X AB "The Lot Show", a collaboration with Tessa Farrell, Mendes Wood DM, New York, US (2021)
  • 'Trust Ur Global Stranger' video work commissioned by CIRCA and curated by Norman Rosenthal London, Piccadilly Circus (2021)
  • School Prints, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK (2021)[9]
  • Tempest, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany and Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2021)[14]
  • No horizon, no edge to liquid, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (2020)[14]
  • Landscapes of the South, Mendes Wood DM, New York, USA (2020)[14]
  • 100 Drawings from Now, The Drawing Center, New York, USA (2020)[14]
  • TALL BOYS & A DOUBLE ESPRESSO, a collaboration with Teresa Farrell, collectively known as Tt X AB, Emalin, London, UK (2019)
  • Natura Naturans, Mendes Wood DM, New York, USA (2018)[14]
  • Hog's Curve, Halsey McKay, East Hampton, USA (2018)[14]
  • The Way Things Run (Der Lauf der Dinge) Part 1: Loose Ends Don't Tie, PS120, Berlin, Germany (2018)[14]
  • Woven, Rental Gallery, East Hampton, NY, USA (2017)[14]
  • The Sleeping Procession, Cass Sculpture Foundation, West Sussex, UK (2017)[14]

References
  1. Lloyd, Joe (2019-07-19). "Alvaro Barrington – interview: 'When you look at my paintings, you're encountering parts of my identity'". www.studiointernational.com. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  2. Nayeri, Farah (2019-06-26). "The Painter Alvaro Barrington on the Art He 'Steals' From". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  3. Buck, Louisa (2019-06-06). "Great artists steal: Alvaro Barrington's new show reveals eclectic range of influences". www.theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  4. Barrington, Alvaro. "Press Release: GARVEY: SEX LOVE NURTURING FAMALAY". Sadie Coles HQ. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  5. "'It's like a marriage': Alvaro Barrington and Sadie Coles get frank about artist-dealer relationships". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2021-02-22. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  6. "Alvaro Barrington's paintings take a lifetime". British GQ. 2022-05-04. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  7. Abrams, Matthew J (2017-12-04). "Studio Visit: Alvaro Barrington at MoMA PS1". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  8. Barrington, Alvaro (2019). Alvaro Barrington. Garvey. London: Sadie Coles HQ. ISBN 978-0-9926556-9-3. OCLC 1151892371.
  9. Bakare, Lanre (2021-03-05). "Black artists send works to inspire children at school". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
  10. hettie-judah (2021-09-14). "Mixing it Up at the Hayward Gallery is terrific: can we stop saying painting is dead now?". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  11. "'We saved each other': Alvaro Barrington's 90s hip-hop exhibition". the Guardian. 2022-03-29. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  12. "'High-end Hermès yak wool blankets covered in concrete' – Alvaro Barrington review". the Guardian. 2021-10-06. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  13. "Alvaro Barrington - Wave Your Flags". Saint George Projects. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  14. "Alvaro Barrington – Artist's Page – CV". www.blumandpoe.com. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
  15. "Mixing It Up: Painting Today". www.southbankcentre.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-10-03.
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