About the artist:

CÉSAR BARRIOS.

Born in Guatemala in 1949. He studied at The San José University of Fine Arts, San José, Costa Rica where he specialized in drawing, graphic design and xylography. He has participated in group shows in Brazil, Spain, Costa Rica, Italy, Taiwan, Mexico and the United States. He also worked as director of Graphic Design for important companies in Guatemala.
"....the source for this exhibition is a series of ideas that have been in process for a long time, they have been thought, drawn over and over again and saved for years, waiting for the right moment for their final execution. My intention is to clean my memory banks and all my files in order to achieve my tabula rasa, finish the many projects I have in mind instead of letting them vanish or be lost interest in memory and time". Cesar Barrios, March 2010.
His sources are antique photos, stained by moisture, dust and oblivion. When dealing with a portrait his aim is not to capture similitudes but precisely to re-treat it another time, or paraphrase it to obtain the different possible versions of a face almost erased by time. Faces become excuses and not deliberate intentions, the purpose being to chase the images they inspire.
(Silvia Herrera, 2000)
When dealing with watercolors, his ability and refined technique can be observed in his brushstroke, in the way he lets the stains flow and how he takes advantage of them, in the interruptions and the rhythm that establish forms and the blank spaces that are not only visual breaks but eloquent silences of the paper in the unity and totality of each piece. (Silvia Herrera, 2000)Also, his watercolors are ideas or sketches for his oils and works in larger format. These larger pieces would portray most of the time larger than life faces of indigenous women, with the clear intention of establishing a dialog and a connection with the spectator into their lives, making his work intensely social.