Meet Tracy Barbosa – Artist
Curator Jessica Bregoli and artist Tracy Barbosa installing work in the Groundwork! Gallery for ‘Duende’.
When contemplating a blog post about Tracy Barbosa, it’s easy to recall all her work as what I call a Creative Activist in the City of New Bedford.
Throughout the city and beyond, Barbosa is well-known for her dedication to using art as a tool of civic engagement and urban renewal.
But to do that here would fall into a common trap when writing about her. Because first and foremost, Tracy Barbosa is an artist – and it’s her amazing artwork that is on display in the Groundwork! Gallery now and which will celebrated this coming Friday, May 18 with an Opening Reception.
Duende – an exhibition by Tracy Barbosa explores the multi-media aspect of the artist’s work. Duende is the name of her business as well as this show.
Duende Glass LLC, is described as helping to find creative solutions to art glass in architectural integrations. Barbosa explains in press materials that, “Traditionally meant to describe dance and music, ‘Duende’ describes an artful moment which cannot be recaptured. It is fleeting, searing, and poetic. Though glass is static, it is in constant flux with its location. Light and color play with glass all day. No moment is ever the same.”
Thus, Duende Glass.
Examples of work in glass is part of the Groundwork! Gallery show, the first to be curated by Jessica Bregoli here at 1213 Purchase Street, New Bedford.
Also adorning the walls will be select pieces revealing her mastery with paint and proficiency in printmaking.
She states that she “utilizes peripheral post-industrial landscapes along with an alphabet of personal archetypal imagery to create paintings on canvas and glass which stir the inner relationships between man, memory, and nature; with grace in composition and multi-layered technique.”
That’s evident in the work on the walls now – as well as a refined brushstroke which is the mark of the true artist and betrays a dedication to craft and technique.
Her work is simply beautiful – and in that beauty it’s also easy to neglect to see the commitment to craft which informs the whole of it. Just as it’s too easy to forget that underlying the Creative Activist so many know so well is the soul of an artist.
Come get a glimpse of that this Friday, May 18 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. when Duende – an exhibition by Tracy Barbosa opens at the Groundwork! Gallery with a free and open to the public exhibition. Artwork will be available for sale, and the artist will be present.
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