Carlos Barberena

The Border Crossed Us Exhibition
2019, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL

Carlos Barberena (b.1972) is a contemporary Nicaraguan self-taught Printmaker best known for his satirical relief prints and the use of images from pop culture, as well as from political and cultural tragedies. In his art, he has consistently reflected on the cycles of repression and resistance and its relationship to the Diaspora in which he has lived, throughout dictatorship, revolution, erasure, renewal, hope, dictatorship and repression.

Carlos Barberena’s prints center these types of life experiences occurring far beyond his country. He creates to counteract the great silence around repression occurring globally believing we are all intimately connected to it. He seeks to demystify the “foreign” experience, to bridge the distances that life across any border or wall produces, but also, the difference in the content of these experiences. He creates to bring awareness to the interconnectedness among them, focusing on injustices of social, political, economic and environmental injustice. At time he evokes with satirical images, at others, through the mundane, unseen things people carry: memories, attachments, relationships and traumas. In each he highlight the myriad cycles of oppression and struggle.

Barberena has exhibited individually in Costa Rica, Estonia, France, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain and The United States of America, his work also has been shown in Art Biennials, Museums, Galleries and Cultural Centers around the world. He has received various awards, most notably the “National Printmaking Award 2012” given by the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture in Managua, Nicaragua; “Parchemin d’Honneur”, 8 Triennale Mondial de l’Estampe et de la Gravure Originale, AMAC, Chamalieres, Auvergne, France, “Revueltas Award” for Visual Arts 2019, Pilsen Fest, Chicago, and the award- poster for the Ecology and Human Rights in Banana Plantations in Costa Rica, given by GEBANA in Berlin, Germany.

Barberena’s work is included in numerous public and private collections. Currently Barberena lives and works in Chicago.

Public Collections

Academia Non-Grata. Pärnu, Estonia
AMAC – Galerie d’Art Contemporain. The Triennial Prints Cabinet – Chamalieres, France
Benedictine University. Lisle, IL USA
Bibliotheca Alexadrina. Permanent Art Collection – Alexandria, Egypt
Cannonball Press. Brooklyn, New York USA
Centro Cultural Antiguo Colegio Jesuita. Taller de Formación y Producción Gráfica, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, México.
Colegio Universitario de Cartago. C.U.C. Cartago, Costa Rica
Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Fort Wayne, IN USA
Galería Nacional. Centro Costarricense de Ciencia y Cultura, Museo de los Niños. San José, Costa Rica
Galería Praxis. Managua, Nicaragua
George Fox University Art Collection – Brandt Fund Purchase – Newberg, OR USA
International Exlibriscentrum. Stedelijke Musea, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
Kyoto International Woodprint Association (KIWA). Kyoto, Japan

Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA). Chicago, IL USA
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo “Julio Cortázar” Sala Latinoamericana, INC, Managua, Nicaragua
Museo Fundación Ortíz-Gurdián. Colección de Arte Contemporáneo – Casa Deshon, León, Nicaragua
Museu do Gravura Douro. Douro Printmaking Biennial Collection – Alijo, Portugal
Museo Lía Bermúdez. Centro de Arte de Maracaibo Lía Bermúdez. Zulia. Venezuela
Museum of Texas Tech University – Artist Printmaker Research Collection – Lubbock, TX USA
National Museum of Mexican Art. Chicago, IL USA
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, México
University of Colorado at Boulder. Special Collection – Boulder, CO USA
Wheaton College Art Collection. Wheaton, IL USA
York College Permanent Art Collection. York College, York, PA USA