About the Artist
Eric Rivera Barbeito was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2017. Rivera Barbeito integrates a multimedia approach to his practice that draws from a diverse field of processes to give visual representation to concepts relevant to the present condition between Puerto Rico and the United States. Rivera Barbeito currently lives and works in Baltimore, was an Artist-in-Residence at the Vermont Studio Center and has been included in group exhibitions at Towson Univesity, School 33, Terrault Contemporary and the Maryland Institute College of Art.Artist's Statement
My body of work engages a multidisciplinary practice involving mixed media to investigate and perform the complexity of the present relationship between the free-associated state of Puerto Rico and the United States. Each project, process, and resulting formal elements explore larger political and cultural discourses centered around autonomy, dependency, inefficiency, resistance, and conflict, often employing the use of tropical, particularly Puerto Rican, imagery.Featured Work
Photos
Featured Work: Photos
Toldos
sandpaper, watercolor, pencil
2018
Vieques
douglas fir, walnut, pine, acrylic, paper
2018
Después
ash, maple, masonite, tarp
2017
Vagón
painted plywood
2018
Campamento
acrylic on paper, ash, shock cord.
2018
Gracias
Wood, acrylic, metal roofing, a/c unit, extension cord.
2017
Gracias, a site-specific structure that resembles a small shed, makes use of standard tropical architectural imagery and an attached air conditioning unit to portray ineffective design. Its walls, made to mimic concrete ornamental blocks commonly found in the Caribbean fail to contain the cooled air that the unit provides. The air conditioning unit, in turn, derives its power from a larger structure that dwarfs Gracias, and reiterates the prevalent relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.