Stained wood on Plexiglas base, circa 2003. 1600x400x300 mm; 63x15 3/4x11 3/4 inches (including base). From the series Naturaleza interior I.
Barreda (born 1954) studied printmaking at the School of Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro and under artist Ruth Leaf in New York before specializing in sculpture at The Sculpture Center in New York. She set up an engraving workshop, El Taller, in Lima, Peru in the 1980s, where she still operates the Fundación Centro El Taller, to instruct graphic artists and to fund and promote Peruvian art. In her sculptural works, Barreda draws from a multitude of sources and inspirations, including pre-Columbian traditions, mythology, spirtualism, and ecology. In her series Naturaleza interior, Barreda references her own internal dialogue with nature, especially flowers. By mimicking the undulating curves as well as the reproductive structures of the flower, the series alludes to gender and sexuality.
