Bio

Carlos Barberena was born in Granada, Nicaragua.

He is a contemporary printmaker known for his relief prints and the use of images from pop culture, as well as from political and cultural tragedies. 

Barberena has received various awards, most notably: "The Otis Philbrick Memorial Prize" - Boston Printmakers: 2023 North American Print Biennial. Boston, MA; “The Elizabeth Catlett Memorial Award”, MAPC, University of Iowa; Second Prize in the 13th International Contemporary Print Biennial of Trois-Rivières (BIECTR), Québec, Canada; Best in Show - PrintAustin: The Contemporary Print, Austin, TX and the National Printmaking Award giving by the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture in Managua, Nicaragua, among others. 

Barberena work is included in numerous national and international public collections such Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Long Beach, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Whitney Museum of American Art / Special Collection, New York, NY; Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, IN; National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL; The Chicago History Museum, Chicago, IL; The Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL; KIWA, Tokyo, Japan; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Fundación Ortiz-Gurdián, León, Nicaragua; National Gallery, San José, Costa Rica among others.

Barberena lives and works in Chicago where he runs Bandolero Press. He is a core member of the Instituto Gráfico de Chicago.

Artist’s Statement 

In my art, I reflect on a myriad of cycles of oppression and struggle I have lived through including dictatorship, revolution, renewal, hope, erasure, dictatorship and repression. 

Art becomes a site of auto ethnography for me, in which I explore how my own experiences relate to other marginalized and organized communities´ experiences globally, and the broader social, economic and political forces that shape them. I create to counteract the great silence in the face of repression occurring globally, believing we are all intimately connected to it.

My work around migration, violence, war, social change and revolution stems from my multi-angled vision, within and after wartime life, as a displaced and border-crossing person first as refugee, later irregular migrant between Nicaragua / Costa Rica, and eventually, as a migrant to the U.S., holding residency and then citizenship.