Cielo (Sky)
Cecilia Barreto, 2021
My work addresses matters that obsess me in everyday life and I consider require special attention. Inspired by remnants of historical painting and by conceptual art, my most recent research traces financial data and its relationship to what is ‘real’. For this project my interest lies in scrutinizing the information generated in the form of data, images, and the financial reports of large companies funded mainly by foreign capital, which currently hold licenses to carry out mining exploration and extraction in Mexico.
Cecilia Barreto
(Mexico City, 1985)
Lives and works in Mexico City.
A visual artist who holds a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the Faculty of Arts and Design of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Their theoretical-artistic research projects develop narratives of recent events.
Selected for the 14th Havana International Biennial, Future and contemporaneity 2021- 2022; for the Casa Wabi international artistic residencies program, curated by Paola Jasso in 2020; and for the 2019 Chambre Blanche residency program in Quebec, Canada, in collaboration with FONCA (the National Endowment for Culture and Arts) and CALQ (the Quebec Conseil des Arts et des lettres). Selected for the second Zona Seis residencies for young artists at Luis Adelantado Gallery in 2015.
Barreto was accepted into the National System of Art Creators (SNCA) program in 2021. They were awarded the BBVA Bancomer-MACG program grant in 2016, the same year they won first place in the 2nd Parámetro Arte Lumen contest. A grantee of the 3rd edition of the Adidas Border grant and of the FONCA Young Creators Program grant in 2009. Barreto was selected in the XVIII and XVI editions of the Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial and received an Honorable Mention in the 8th Alfredo Zalce National Biennial of Painting and Engraving (2011).
Barreto has had five solo exhibitions: Cielo Abierto at the Archivo Colectivo Gallery in Mexico City in 2021; Hyperobjects at La Chambre Blanche in Quebec City, Canada in 2019; Happy markets at Luis Adelantado Gallery in Mexico City in 2016; Diagrama de la interferencia at the La Esmeralda National School of Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking in Mexico City in 2012; and Visualidad simultánea at José María Velasco Gallery in Mexico City in 2012.
They have participated in more than 70 collective exhibitions, including: El cordón umbilical retiniano at the FESPAC foundation in Mexico City, 2018; Pintura reactiva and Modos de ver, both held at the Carrillo Gil museum in Mexico City, 2018; Fábulas sin moraleja. El desbordamiento de la corrupción en México at the Casa del Lago Juan José Arreola of the UNAM, Mexico City, 2017; Notas para una educación (económico-) sentimental at the UNAM Chopo University Museum in Mexico City, 2017; Parámetro 02 at the Museum of Mexico City, 2016; El futuro no está escrito at the Palazzo Cinni in Venice, Italy as part of the official program of the 56th Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte de Venicia, 2015; and Yo sé que tu padre no entiende mi lenguaje modelno at the University Museum of Contemporary Art, or MUAC, at the UNAM in Mexico City, 2014.
