Alvaro Barrington: Spider the Pig, Pig the Spider

For his first solo exhibition in a UK institution, Alvaro Barrington presents a new body of works, in a bespoke installation responding to the architecture of the SLG’s main exhibition space. The central concept of the show is that of a relatively near future in which Augmented and Virtual Reality have evolved to the point that people routinely choose which identity or character to adopt in different social and other situations, with digital and real life becoming completely intertwined. Paintings integrating printed and digitally rendered elements merge Peppa Pig from the children’s cartoon with Napoleon and other pigs from Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Anansi the Spider from the African folktale with Louise Bourgeois’s bronze spider sculptures. Another series of works made from concrete smeared on dyed Hermès blankets is hung high up on the walls in reference to cloud paintings, continuing Barrington’s relentless play on connections between diverse historic and contemporary cultural references.