Alvaro Barrington

Born in Venezuela in 1983 to Grenadian and Haitian migrant workers, Alvaro Barrington was raised between the Caribbean and Brooklyn, New York, inspiring his lively installations and paintings which explore communal and personal histories and disrupt art historical narratives. He regularly integrates non-traditional materials into his work, including burlap, concrete, cardboard, and clothing to explore how the materials themselves can function as visual tools while referencing their personal, political and commercial histories. An unwavering commitment to community informs Barrington’s wide-ranging oeuvre alongside an exploration of migration and cross-cultural exchange.

Barrington now lives and works in London after having studied at Hunter College, New York, and The Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he has lectured since 2019. In addition to his first solo exhibition, which opened the same year he graduated (2017) at MoMA PS1, New York, Barrington has also exhibited his important works at venues such as Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2018), Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019), and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2022). His resolutely interdisciplinary approach follows in the footsteps of Robert Rauschenberg’s groundbreaking Combines, which he references by incorporating real objects onto the picture plane. Working in an ever-evolving practice, Barrington’s multivocal work reconfigures the relationships between communal narratives and contemporary culture.