Artists
Álvaro Barrios
An artist of great versatility, he has worked surrealist, conceptual and pop compositions in his paintings. Álvaro Barrio has been a notable cartoonist and has involved comic elements in his work. In his words, “all contemporary art has left its mark on his pictorial universe”.
Selected Artwork
Untitled, s.f
Acrylic on canvas
160 x 250 cm
63 x 98 3/8 inches
Another Favorite Painter, 2012
Acrylic on canvas
130 x 250 cm.
51 1/8 x 98 3/8 in.
Ask about Álvaro Barrios artwork
Biography
Álvaro Barrios (Barranquilla, 1945), a pioneer of Colombian conceptual art trained at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Barranquilla and in architecture, treats art history itself as raw material: appropriation, comic strips, and literature intersect in pieces — mainly acrylic on canvas — that think, with irony, about what it means to make art today.
His visual language draws on the comic strips he absorbed as a child, fusing Surrealism, Pop and Conceptualism with a graphic, comic-derived line that crosses high and popular culture.
Based in Medellín and represented by Galería Duque Arango, he won the Gold Medal at the IX Tokyo Biennial (1974) and the Latin American Painting Prize at the 1st Buenos Aires Biennial (2001); he took part in the Paris (1971) and São Paulo (1975) biennials.
