Red stripes

acrylic and charcoal on canvas

cm 100 x 81

About

Cristina Barr (Argentinian, living in France) is known for her bold and intense paintings that intertwine the private and the public – the intimate and the political, combining autobiographical elements with stories from literature, and observations on the contemporary world. She uses colour and heavy brushstrokes to create unsettling tableaux which, at times, challenge the social and sexual codes still present mainly in Latin American societies. Charged with a unique psychic and emotional drama, her works, almost always inhabited by a strong female presence, express what it is to be a woman, particularly one living under the oppressive hierarchies and controlling conventions of patriarchal society. She has exhibited in Argentina, Italy (Florence Biennale-2021), France, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, and in Qatar, with the support of the Argentinian Embassy.

Statement

I’m interested in the human condition, the psychological depth of the characters I paint, exposing their power but also their vulnerability. I choose my models, mainly from social media. People striving for their fleeting moment of glory on Instagram. People creating a performance of “self”. I would like the viewer’s psyche to be “disturbed” by the presence, the performative existence of my characters. At the other end, I’m also interested in the “voyeuristic” experience of the spectator. This is why I choose big, life-size formats. I aim at the confrontation of selves.