Rafael Barrios
Rafael Barrios is a Venezuelan-American sculptor born in 1947 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He studied Fine Arts in Canada, the United States, and Venezuela. He received a scholarship from New York University to attend its Graduate Program for "Fine Arts" and "Monumental Sculpture Techniques". He has been granted several national and international awards. Throughout his career as an artist, Rafael Barrios has also worked as Art Director for UNESCO, Creative Consultant, Stage Designer and professor for recognized and established international institutions.
Many of his pieces can be found in both public spaces and Private Art Collections around the world. Rafael Barrios has exhibited in the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. His work can be found in permanent collections in the Ontario Art Gallery, the Carmen Lamanna Foundation in Toronto, Canada, the National Art Gallery in Caracas, the Sofia Imber Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas, the private collections of His Royal Highness Don Juan Carlos de Borbón, King of Spain (Levitating Symmetry), the collection of Her Royal Highness Gloria Dowager Princess of Thurn and Taxis, Germany, among many others.
Barrios is best known for this large-scale public sculptures. His geometric sculptures manipulate the eye into seeing depth in flat sheets of brightly colored metal. He plays with shapes, altering the laws of geometry, fabling volume in space. His sculptures are characterized by breaking orthodox directionality, accessing new possibilities of perception. Vertiginous elevations cause his virtual works to seemingly erect upon themselves, defying the laws of space, alleviating bodies that should be subject to gravity.
Liz Contag Art is honored to have been entrusted to trade artwork from this internationally renowned artist.
"Acrobatica", 2014, Edition 2/2, Lacquered steel, 27 x 58 ", Iridescent blue. Contact for price.