FEATURED ARTIST

KEVIN BARRANCO

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ARTIST STATEMENT

My intention is not to capture the world around me, but to illustrate my personal interpretation of things. My work speaks of reoccurring themes like human rawness, dream-like states, and the surreal planet that we live in. 

 

I’ve always been a creative soul that finds virtue in the mundane and that sees in colors that maybe aren’t apparent to everyone. Since I can remember, I draw influence from surrealist artists like Salvador Dali, Tim Burton, and Frida Khalo. In my own way, I love to fuse together different mediums to heighten the value of recyclable materials, push the boundaries of photography, and strengthen the relationship between our lives and technology. 

One of the most apparent intentions in my work is to connect a bridge between the mind and the unconscious. What more can I do than to pay tribute to an unspoken world?

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SYPNOSIS OF SUBMISSION

Deplorate Dreams, Kevin Barranco, 2021, mixed media.

Although depression conventionally takes on the face of dullness, in me it stirs something different. As far back as I can remember—and especially in my adolescence—there was this urge to understand the other side of things. It was a type of place that maybe didn’t exist physically, but existed in the realm of my head. For whatever it’s worth, that’s still the vision that I try to paint until this day.

I’ll likely never be fully complete, or feel entirely content with who I am, my feelings, or my thoughts. Perhaps my mental instability is what triggers the colors to spill out of me. Sure enough, I’m drawn to the detached ecstasy that comes after each depressive state. Expressing that is what heals my trauma. 

This unreleased series of photographs aims to combine the analog-like factors of depression, anxiety, and mania; with the virtual highs that come afterwards. . . that rush of euphoria after a lingering desolation. That’s what I want to exhibit here, and I hope others relate. 

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QUICK BIOGRAPHY

Kevin Barranco’s Mexican descent is apparent in his passion for his work, and in the details of his personality. He moved to the States at the age of four, but he always holds his roots close to his heart. 

 

As the years went by and he grew into his adulthood, he quickly engaged in all things related to the applied arts. During high school he explored TV & Broadcasting media, which is where he developed his eye behind the camera. He has always thrived amongst charismatic and artistic people. 

 

It was during his senior year’s Culinary Arts class that he picked up a new love for cooking. He spontaneously decided to switch career paths and pursed an education at the Culinary Institute of Michigan, where he accelerated in the competitive environment. It was from there that he put his skills to the test and began working at some of Detroit’s fine dining restaurants. 

 

Aside from his part time sous chef position, Kevin is now a freelance artist. During a solo trip to Colorado, he walked into an art exhibit and discovered a new type of 3D collage art which he now pieces together with ordinary objects and materials that he forages over time. Kevin hopes to expand his audience and aspires to create on his own terms. He anticipates to create the art that truly speaks to him and to others with a similar mindset. 

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ARTIST STATEMENT

My intention is not to capture the world around me, but to illustrate my personal interpretation of things. My work speaks of reoccurring themes like human rawness, dream-like states, and the surreal planet that we live in. 

 

I’ve always been a creative soul that finds virtue in the mundane and that sees in colors that maybe aren’t apparent to everyone. Since I can remember, I draw influence from surrealist artists like Salvador Dali, Tim Burton, and Frida Khalo. In my own way, I love to fuse together different mediums to heighten the value of recyclable materials, push the boundaries of photography, and strengthen the relationship between our lives and technology. 

One of the most apparent intentions in my work is to connect a bridge between the mind and the unconscious. What more can I do than to pay tribute to an unspoken world?

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WHY I CREATE?

I consider myself a contemporary visual artist with an old soul and a futuristic vision. In a world where detachment has become a type of norm, I feel that it is my commitment to inspire others with that vision, and to arouse their minds. When I don’t create, I feel as though I am missing out or not fulfilling my purpose. That is why I spend my days in hope of translating that into pieces that others can interpret in more imaginative ways. 

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DEPLORATE DREAMS

Materials: Mixed media 

Size:00" h x 00" w

2021

$00.

Note: Kevin has committed a portion of the proceeds go back to MM-O-DD for youth programming.