Sculptures by Rafael Barrios and Rafael Rangel Serrano
¨Into the Open" encapsulates the idea of emergence and transformation. It implies leaving behind confines—whether physical, mental, or emotional—and embracing a state of greater visibility, awareness, or opportunity.
Rafael Barrios and Rafael Rangel Serrano approach the sculpture from their own place. They seek discomfort in abstraction, Rangel Serrano through the disorder of anarchic compositions while Barrios through the challenge of the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional, experimenting with the modification of the rules of geometry.
Rafael Barrios, a Venezuelan artist born in 1947 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, began his career at a young age. He studied drawing and painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas, winning the “National Youth Painting” award in 1963. He completed his education in Venezuela, Canada, and the United States, graduating with honors in “Fine Arts” and “Communication and Design” from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. He also pursued postgraduate studies in “Fine Arts” and “Monumental Sculpture Techniques” at New York University.
Throughout his career, he worked as an art director for UNESCO, a creative consultant in film, a set designer for magazines such as Vogue and Esquire, and a design professor in Caracas. His notable works include sculptures and murals in public spaces like the Polar Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Caracas, as well as installations in New York, Paris, and Seville. He has exhibited in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East, with pieces in collections of institutions such as the National Art Gallery of Caracas and private collections of figures like King Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Gloria of Germany.