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 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 University,  School 33, Terrault Contemporary and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

My practice documents Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States, addressing the cultural, political, and economic aspects of said relationship and its implications on smaller, more personal levels. Through a multidisciplinary approach that utilizes sculpture, painting, drawing, and digital media, my work focuses on the portrayal of concepts such as designed inefficiency, inequality, imperialism, and colonialism.

Tanquesito (M1A1), mixed media, 24" x 3 ½" x 13 ½", 2021

This sculpture is the product of many small experiments done while furloughed last year. Made from pieces of wood from the scrap bin that follows me with every move, some sculpey I picked up shortly after being told to stay at home from work, and an old tattered shirt, these small explorations provided a sense of calm during those initial months of the pandemic. Later last year, I began researching the idea of Manifest Destiny, which subsequently led to reading reports on the Department of Defense’s carbon footprint, which dwarfs the emissions of entire countries. After multiple iterations and yet another move, Tanquesito (diminutive for tank in Spanish), finally began to resemble the information that inspired it: a country enmeshed throughout the world through a web of bases and operations intent on preserving its hegemony by any means necessary, incapable of protecting its citizens from the massive suffering this virus has inflicted.

Caracól, polymer clay, acrylic paint, 6 3/8” x 5 1/4” x 1”, 2020

Caracól is one of the works I made while being furloughed during April of last year. It is an arrangement of shell-like shapes made out of polymer clay. This small work was born out of a sense of longing but also out of anxiousness and fear; echoing fossils and extinction.

Ahora, HDPE, ash, plywood, acrylic paint and graphite, 16 3/8" x 10 ¼" x 1 ¼", 2020

Ahora is meant as a contemplation of the aftermath of natural disasters. Initially thinking of the aftermath of Hurricane María, it took on new life in context of the string of massive wildfires that have engulfed colossal sections of land in the last year and a half. From the Amazon wildfires in 2019, to the fires in Australia at the beginning of last year, to ever-worsening California fire seasons, Ahora symbolizes a burning house whose residents continue daily life as if nothing is wrong.

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