Portrait of Alvaro Barrington at Tate Britain in 2024. Photo © Tate (Jai Monaghan) (1)
Alvaro Barrington (b.1983, Venezuela) will be the next artist to undertake the annual Tate Britain Commission. On 29 May, Barrington will unveil a major new work addressing themes of place and belonging in the grand neo-classical Duveen Galleries at the heart of Tate Britain. On view until 26 January 2025, this will be the largest presentation of Barrington’s work to date.
Considering himself primarily a painter, Alvaro Barrington is known for his expansive use of materials, motifs and techniques which reference his personal memories and cultural influences from music, pop culture, and art history. Using unconventional materials – from concrete and burlap to brooms and musical instruments – his works evoke the sounds and colours, as well as the social and political backdrop of his early life in Grenada in the Caribbean and Brooklyn in New York. The artist‘s commitment to community has brought his work into unexpected spaces, including contributions to London‘s Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury Festival and an East London basketball court.
Alvaro Barrington said: “This commission is such a great opportunity, and I am incredibly honoured to create new work for the Duveen Galleries. My mind has been spinning since I first got invited to do it and I'm now counting down the days. Working on this large-scale project presented new opportunities to engage with more formats and mediums and I can’t wait to share the result.”
Alex Farquharson, Director, Tate Britain, said: "We are thrilled that Alvaro Barrington is taking on this year’s Tate Britain Commission. Since moving to London in 2015, he has made an exciting contribution to the contemporary British art scene with his experimental works which walk the line between painting, sculpture, architecture and performance. Alvaro is interested in creating accessible artistic experiences and we are excited to see how he will transform the Duveen Galleries this year“.
Alvaro Barrington was born in Venezuela in 1983 to a Haitian father and a Grenadian mother and was raised between the Caribbean and Brooklyn, New York. He studied at Hunter College in New York before moving to London in 2015 to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. Barrington has exhibited internationally, from his first solo show at MoMA PS1 in 2017 to his exhibition at South London Gallery in 2021, and his works are held in public collections including Tate, The Hepworth Wakefield, Towner Eastbourne, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami.
Tate Britain Commission: Alvaro Barrington is the latest in a series of contemporary commissions for artists to develop a new site-specific work in Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries. Artists who have previously undertaken commissions in the Duveens include Hew Locke (2022), Heather Phillipson (2021), Mike Nelson (2019), Anthea Hamilton (2018), Cerith Wyn Evans (2017), Pablo Bronstein (2016), Christina Mackie (2015), and Phyllida Barlow (2014).