Rafael Barrios
Bio
Rafael Barrios (Baton Rouge, 1947) is an American-Venezuelan artist who transforms perception into a field of play, analysis, and reflection. His sculptures appear to float, stretch, or contract depending on the angle from which they are viewed, creating an illusion that challenges the boundaries between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional.
His work has been exhibited in cities such as New York, Tokyo, Dubai, Paris, Madrid, Mexico City, and Caracas. Among his most notable exhibitions are “Rafael Barrios on Park Avenue” (Fund for Park Avenue, 2012), “Ontological Curiosit” (Coral Gables Museum, 2019), and “Dislocating New York” (Galleria Ca’ D’Oro, 2021).
Statement
Barrios’s work is not only visually striking but also deeply conceptual. It speaks of perception, illusion, and the relativity of space—subjects that transcend art and connect with philosophy, science, and the vast possibilities of human experience on a heightened, solemn frequency. His works are grounded in rigorous research into geometry, color, and perspective, using steel, aluminum, stainless steel, and polycarbonates painted with iridescent colors that, when interacting with light, cast shadows and generate volumes nonexistent in physical reality. The result is an experience that invites the viewer to observe attentively, question what they see, and actively engage with the work.
