Alvaro Barrington in La Vie en Rose
at Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
January 29 – April 2, 2022
I thought about imagining music as a painting and the show follows through with that. – Alvaro Barrington
Alvaro Barrington’s most recent series explores the centrality of music as a constant source of inspiration in his practice, describing these works as the result of his ongoing pursuit to ‘turn physical the music that I love’. Growing up during the 1990s in Brooklyn, New York, Barrington was heavily influenced by the late American rapper Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), whose often autobiographical lyrics describe a world marked by hardship, but also perseverance and celebration. These ideas resonated with Barrington’s own environment and are reflected in his works, which he infuses with references to his personal and cultural history. ‘When you look at my paintings, you’re encountering parts of my identity,’ he explains. ‘I grew up in a culture where it was really about erasing hierarchies, where we’re all participating in cultural production.’
The exhibition’s title La Vie en Rose references Tupac Shakur’s autobiographical poem ‘The Rose That Grew From Concrete’, which explores the potential for beauty and fragility to arise from harsh surroundings. The artist explains that he pursued ‘this idea that even in the toughest conditions there are people that are beautiful and fragile and tough – all the kind of qualities that you see in a rose.’
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