Carla Barchini lives and works in Beirut (Lebanon). She holds a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Geneva. She also followed an antique furniture restoration course in Florence (Italy), where she acquired alternative techniques with master craftsmen at the Palazzo Spinelli School. Strong of these classical traditions, she revisited them to start realizing her personal works. Her compositions tackle the themes of transcendence, liberation and the quest of self through inner journeys as she experiments on various supports, which are scraped, scoured, covered and transformed. The support she uses is mostly wood but also leather and iron, as well as discarded and recovered objects and elements, from the street or from construction sites, to which she assigns a story or a new life. She not only illustrates but also shapes her supports through the use of mixed media. By painting on hard as well as soft surfaces, Carla delves into the heart of matter while revealing its unexplored potential. During her residency in Rio de Janeiro, she aimed to find objects that were forgotten, thrown away or recycled, in order to create a structure, an ensemble related to what she’ll discover about the city.

Pictures Gallery