Andrea Barrios Chile, b. 1980

Andrea Barrios’ work arises from a reflection on textiles; the plasticity and versatility of their structure, their potential for chromatic experimentation and kinetic ability.

She works primarily with fabrics and threads. However, her research and processes have led her to deepen her investigations in relation to fibre and fabric through mediums such as painting, drawing, photography and digital design.

 

The artist takes different approaches when working with textile materials, initially following a primarily geometric and abstract line, and later exploring figurative and organic lines.

On the other hand, embroidery on paper has allowed her to expand the possibilities of representation by thinking of thread as a line or vector in a space, which in its repetition and superposition plays with light, shadow and volume, reaffirming the kinetic potential of the textile as a material and support at the same time.

 

In her works with fabrics, she projects each work as a chromatically variable body, in whose structure - constructed with overlapping layers, joined by seams and then intervened with incisions and folds - the concepts of colour, light, movement and time connect to each other.

 

Andrea Barrios was born in Santiago de Chile in 1980. From her creative mother she inherited her chromatic intuition and innate facility for drawing, painting and the use of the sewing machine, as well as her daring for the versatile and unrestricted exploration of diverse materialities and supports.

From her father, an engineer, she was bequeathed a love of geometry and a rigorous approach to work and its processes.

She also had access to knowledge of tools and textile work through her tailor grandfather. These elements, along with her early interest in art and design, have guided her in the self-taught exploration of the path of contemporary textile art.

 

She graduated from University of Chile with a degree in Art Theory and Art History, where she took courses in photography, textiles and printmaking.

After a short period of study at the School of Architecture of the Catholic University of Chile, she did an internship at the CREA Restoration Centre. It was during this period that she became formally interested in colour theory and especially in textiles, which later led her to attend courses in cutting, sewing and drawing applied to design.