Artist of the day, January 29, 2020: Frida Baranek, a Brazilian sculptor (903)

Frida Baranek (1961) is a Brazilian sculptor known for creating large sculptural works that incorporate fibers and industrial materials such as plates, rods, and iron or steel wires as a commentary on industrialization and the environment in Brazil.

Frida Baranek was born in Rio de Janeiro. She graduated from Universidade Santa Úrsula, with a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1983, and from Parsons School of Design with a master's degree in sculpture in 1985. She has lived and worked in São Paulo, Paris, Berlin, and New York City.

She creates organic forms and subjects using inorganic materials e.g., "Untitled," (1985) stone, wood boxes, bulbs, and electric wire,  incorporated into and organic material (water) and it flows throughout the water seamlessly.

Others take the form of fences and screens to evoke mass and space e.g. Untitled, (1988) iron flexible, plates and stones and Untitled. The artist also knits and weaves thin thread into the womb and bag-like forms like in her sculpture. Baranek's overwhelming tangles and whiskered sacs refer to the sexual symbol of women's hair; this is not only a symbol of inclination but of danger as well. Other materials used in her sculptures are stones, springs, bars, glass, air chambers, tires, rubber balls, water, sand, etc.

In 1984, in a selected group exhibition called "Como vai você, Geração 80?" at the Escola de Artes Visuais in Rio de Janeiro, Baranek created a stained plastic buoy floating in Rodrigo de Freitas Lake. The buoy is similar to the shape of the Dois Irmãos Mountain, which is close to the exhibition. The buoy is surrounded by water. The sculpture's satin surface that is silver reflects light bouncing off the water. Baranek's sculptures reflect a skewed reality, strangeness, and unexpected poetical relationships.

Her works are held by the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo, the Kemper Art Museum, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

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1985, Untitled

1986, Untitled

1986, Untitled

1988, Untitled

1988, Untitled

1988, Untitled

1988, Untitled

1990, Golfo

1990, Sleeping in Venice

1990, Untitled

1990, Untitled

1991, Untitled

1993, Cushion

1994, Untitled

1994, Untitled

1997, Les Derniers Morceaux

2000, Tenor

2009, Mola I

2013, Aliança

2013, Armadilha

2014, Mudança de jogo com corda de sisal

2014, Rebolando no teto

2017, Indeterminacy I

2017, Indeterminacy III

2017, No Control

2017, Spray it

2019, Liminality I

2019, Liminality X