Alvaro Barrington

Alvaro Barrington (born 1983) is a New York and 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. Barrington attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and then trained at Hunter College in New York. In 2015, he moved to London and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art completing his MFA in 2017.

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. 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"

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

Barrington is 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. His contribution is titled Grandma’s Hands (2020).

Individual Exhibitions

A selection of Barrington's solo exhibitions:

• 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)
• Garvey 2 –They eyes were watching God, Corvi-Mora, London, UK (2020)
• The Shop at Sadie Coles, London, UK (2020)
• Garvey: Sex Love Nurturing Famalay’, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2019)
• Artists I Steal From, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, London, UK (2019)
• A Taste of Chocolate, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK (2018)
• Condo London, Emalin, London, UK (2018)
• Alvaro Barrington, MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2017)

Group Exhibitions

• 'Trust Ur Global Stranger' video work commissioned by CIRCA and curated by Norman Rosenthal London, Piccadilly Circus (2021)

A selection of exhibitions that Barrington has contributed to:

• School Prints, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK (2021)
• Tempest, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany and Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2021)
• No horizon, no edge to liquid, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (2020)
• Landscapes of the South, Mendes Wood DM, New York, USA (2020)
• 100 Drawings from Now, The Drawing Center, New York, USA (2020)
• Natura Naturans, Mendes Wood DM, New York, USA (2018)
• Hog’s Curve, Halsey McKay, East Hampton, USA (2018)
• The Way Things Run (Der Lauf der Dinge) Part 1: Loose Ends Don’t Tie, PS120, Berlin, Germany (2018)
• Woven, Rental Gallery, East Hampton, NY, USA (2017)
• The Sleeping Procession, Cass Sculpture Foundation, West Sussex, UK (2017)

External links

• Scaffold Podcast, Episode 46: Alvaro Barrington Interview on Soundcloud (2021).
• Alvaro Barrington - A Focus on Painting Interview on Youtube (2020).
• @alvarobarrington Instagram
• Garvey Art Net
• Alvaro Barrington Profile - Sadie Coles HQ
• Alvaro Barrington Profile - Blum & Poe