Alvaro Barrington

Em reclining sofa bed w/ Burberry pillow, 2021
carpet, concrete, wood, mixed media on burlap paper
201 x 201 x 8 cm

© Alvaro Barrington. Photo: Charles Duprat. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac. Acquired for The Hepworth Wakefield in 2021 through a generous donation from The Roden Family and with thanks to Thaddaeus Ropac gallery.

Venezuelan-born artist Alvaro Barrington makes mixed-media paintings that explore the cultural histories of materials and images. Combining yarn with painting, he draws on personal, political, and commercial narratives from a wide range of sources including his childhood in the Caribbean and 1980s New York, and London where he is currently based.

In Em reclining sofa bed w/ Burberry pillow, Barrington reinterprets traditional representations of the reclining female figure. The subject is painted a vivid blue and adorned with a single gold hoop earring. The sofa bed and Burberry pillow signify modern domestic interiors, the intimacy of their setting emphasised through Barrington’s use of warm colour, the yarn’s softness, and the subject’s relaxed pose.