Alvaro Barrington: Oh, Sandy? Sandy, Sandy

Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983, Caracas, Venezuela) paints vivid abstractions that consider the cultural production of subjects ranging from hibiscus flowers to the life of Marcus Garvey. Raised between Brooklyn and the Caribbean, Barrington utilizes cross-disciplinary materials and crafts that often reference his childhood, including the sewing of his Grenadian aunts as well as his current life in Europe. In his early work Barrington experimented with “copying” artists like Willem de Kooning, Henry Taylor, and Howard Hodgkin. The influence of such artists, whose work Barrington highlighted in a 2019 show he curated entitled Artists I Steal From at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac in London, can be felt in the bold, gestural quality of his compositions.

Gaby Collins-Fernandez is an artist living and working in New York City. She holds degrees from Dartmouth College (BA) and the Yale School of Art (MFA, Painting/Printmaking). Her work has been shown in the US and internationally, including at Peter Freeman, Inc., the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama and El Museo del Barrio, NY. Her work has been discussed in publications such as the Brooklyn Rail and artcritical, and on the video interview series, Gorky’s Granddaughter. She is a recipient of residencies at Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY), The Marble House Project (Dorset, VT), and a 2013 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Art Award. She is a founder and publisher of the annual magazine Precog, and a co-director of the artist-run art and music initiative BombPop!Up.