Alvaro Barrington

Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983, Caracas, Venezuela) is a multidisciplinary artist based in London. Raised in the Caribbean and later Brooklyn, New York, Barrington harnesses abstract painting, embroidery, and site-specific installation to explore communal and personal histories and disrupt art historical narratives. Hibiscus flowers, tulips, gestural passages of paint on burlap, and reimagined configurations of readymade and industrial materials such as concrete, chain, and metal rolling gates become grounds for Barrington’s lyric explorations, ranging from the life of Marcus Garvey to the legacies of hip hop and modernism. Working in an ever-evolving practice, Barrington’s multivocal art making reconfigures the relationships between communal narratives and contemporary culture.

Recent solo exhibitions include Karma, New York (2023); MassimoDeCarlo, Milan (2022); Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2022); Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg (2022); South London Gallery (2021); Thaddaeus Ropac Paris Marais (2021); Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York (2021); Emalin, London (2021, 2019, 2018); Corvi-Mora, London (2020); Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019); Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2018); and MoMA PS1, New York (2017).

In the spring of 2024, Tate Britain Commission will debut a new site-specific installation by Barrington.

Born in 1983, Caracas, Venezuela

Lives and works in London

EDUCATION

2017

MFA, The Slade School of Art, London

2013

Hunter College, New York

SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2024

Tate Britain, London

2023

Nicola Vassell, New York, Island Life

Sadie Coles HQ, London, The Got Time – Grandma’s Land

Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France, They Got Time: YOU BELONG TO THE CITY

London, UK, The House of St Barnabas

Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil, Human Nature

Anton Kern Gallery, New York, Oh Sandy, why did you leave me all alone

Karma, New York, Oh, Sandy? Sandy, Sandy

2022

Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, 91–98 jfk–lax border

Culver City, California, THE GREAT TRADE – A Teaser, Saint George

Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, La Vie en Rose

Corvi-Mora, London, Garvey 2: THE REUP

Massimodecarlo, Milan, Sea Both Sides

2021

South London Gallery, London, SPIDER THE PIG, PIG THE SPIDER

Saint George Projects, Brooklyn, Wave Your Flags: Labor Day

Nicola Vassell, New York, GARVEY 1: BIRTH – The Quiet Storm

Nicola Vassell, New York, The Earth, That is Sufficient

Far Rockaway, New York, Tt x AB: The Lot Show

Emalin, London, My Words Will Live Forever – Fuck My Name

Emalin, London, Drug Culture: VOL II. Trust Your Local Drug Dealer

Sadie Coles HQ, London, Wave Your Flags II

Tabernacle, London, Wave Your Flags

Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Paris, You don’t do it for the man, men never notice. You just do it for yourself, you’re the fucking coldest

2020

Corvi-Mora, London, Garvey 2- They eyes were watching God

2019

Sadie Coles HQ, London, Garvey: Sex Love Nurturing Famalay

Emalin, London, Tt X AB: Tall Boys & A Double Shot Espresso

2018

Thaddaeus Ropac, London, A Taste of Chocolate, curated Norman Rosenthal

Emalin, London, Condo London/Alvaro Barrington

2017

MoMA PS1, New York, Alvaro Barrington, curated by Klaus Biesenbach

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

James Fuentes, New York, A Study in Form (Chapter Two), curated by Arden Wohl

Skyhigh Farm, Germantown, New York, Trees Never End and Houses Never End

2023

Foundation Vincent van Gogh Arles, France, Studio of the South (forthcoming)

Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, We is Future. Visions of New Communities (forthcoming)

Mendes Wood DM, S.o Paulo, Brazil, Linhas Tortas

Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century

Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 1983 | 2023

Bienal das Amazônias, Belém, Pará, Amazônia, Brazil

Mendes Wood DM, d’Ouwe Kerke, Retranchement, The Netherlands, Paper Trails

Massimo de Carlo, Hong Kong, Thread Routes

Michael Werner, New York, Birds Follow Spring

Cement Fondu, Paddington, NSW, Australia, THINGS THAT ARE REAL: ALVARO BARRINGTON X

DEAN CROSS

The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century

2022

Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art, London, Testament

Le Consortium, Dijon, France, The Drawing Centre Show

2021

Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, Belgium, In the Eye of the Storm

Hayward Gallery, London, Mixing It Up: Painting Today

Abattoir, Cleveland, The Dead Don’t Die

Anton Kern Gallery, New York, 11

Emalin, London, Hand to Your Ear, Part 1 (Presence/Surplus)

Pigeon Park, 33 Manor Place, London

Nicola Vassell, New York, The Earth, That is Sufficient

Piccadilly Lights, London, London Zeitgeist

Drawing Room, London, Drawing Biennial

Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany; Sadie Coles HQ, London, Tempest

2020

Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, London, A Focus on Painting

MAMOTH, London, after image

Mendes Wood DM, New York, Landscapes of the South

Zabludowicz Collection, London, No horizon, no edge to liquid

Gladstone, New York, Drawing 2020

The Drawing Center, New York, 100 Drawings from Now

Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Paris, 30 Years in Paris

2019

Miami, Go to Heaven

Ca’Pesaro Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Venice, Breathless / London Art Now

Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario, Material Tells

LOYAL, Stockholm, A Seed’s a Star

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, Artists I Steal From, curated by Alvaro Barrington and Julia Peyton-Jones

2018

Mendes Wood DM, New York, Natura Naturans

Halsey McKay, East Hampton, New York, Hog’s Curve

PS120, Berlin, The Way Things Run (Der Lauf der Dinge) Part 1: Loose Ends Don’t Tie

Slade School of Fine Art, London, Widening the Gaze

2017

Rental Gallery, East Hampton, New York, Woven

Cass Sculpture Foundation, West Sussex, United Kingdom, The Sleeping Procession

Public Collections

Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
The Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK
Long Museum, Shanghai
The Tate, London
Towner Museum, Eastbourne, UK
X Museum, Beijing