”I have a right to feel something.” We met painter Alvaro Barrington in his London studio and found an artist troubled by the state of the world.
”I think today we are triggered or harmed and feel uncomfortable by the artist. Therefore, we need to eliminate the artwork because that’s the real violence. And the violence is not the fact that kids can’t afford the cost of living, that people feel more alone than they’ve ever felt, that all the statistics are going in the wrong direction if you’re a 20-year-old kid right now, and you can’t imagine a climate in 40 years that is reasonable for you. I think the liberal position in the art industry has become that it is the artist who may be dealing with truths from their neighborhood that is the problem, not the world that we’re living in. And it’s one of those things that I find the most disgusting.”
”I actually have very little patience for it, as somebody who’s actually seen the amount of violence that I’ve seen in life and understand what real violence is. I hope we don’t scare artists away from that vulnerability. That we go, okay, thank you for being vulnerable. Now we understand how that anger manifests in you because of the world that’s being created. I think it’s almost a duty for me to make sure that I allow my vulnerability to be in the work that goes out in the world.”
Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983 in Caracas, Venezuela) was born to Haitian and Grenadian parents and was raised between the Caribbean and Brooklyn, New York. He currently lives and works in London. His artistic practice is multidisciplinary, reflecting on histories of cultural production and their exchange.
Whilst firstly considering himself a painter, his process to image-making is wide-ranging, as his works include the application of diverse non-traditional materials – such as concrete, wood, textiles, yarn, burlap, cardboard, clothing, postcards, prints, drawing, and photography. For the artist, each medium has numerous possibilities, and each is a tool to represent both individual and collective cultural narratives. Recurrent subject matters are close-ups of faces, body parts, and equatorial plants. References are seen in his use of imagery such as hibiscus flowers, the 20th-century Harlem Renaissance, Marcus Garvey, hip-hop culture of the 90s, such as Tupac, and inspiration from other artists’ practices such as Willem de Kooning, Joseph Beuys, and Robert Rauschenberg. His works explore diverse themes, such as migration, nationality, selfhood, sexuality, time, and the digital realm.
Barrington is also actively involved in various community activities, including charities, concerts, performances, and shows. Believing that art needs to be accessible to communities in public sites, Barrington has been participating in the organisation of the Notting Hill Carnival since 2019. In 2022, he was the producer of Queen of the Caribbean, the main concert stage at the Notting Hill Carnival. In 2024, Barrington was selected as the artist for the Tate Britain Commission. The same year, the platform Artsy included Barrington on their list of the most influential artists worldwide.
Recent solo exhibitions include Massimo de Carlo, Milan (2025, 2022); Tate Britain Commission, London (2024); Art Basel Parcours (2024); Karma, New York (2023); 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).
Alvaro Barrington was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in October 2025. The interview took place in Barrington’s studio in London.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited by: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2025
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