Barrão investigates how familiar objects can acquire new forms and meanings through fragmentation, accumulation, and encounters between materials. His sculptures are constructed from ceramic and porcelain pieces drawn from a collection of decorative objects gathered at secondhand markets, including shells, animals, fruit, utensils, and other elements of domestic kitsch. Organized by color and motif, these objects constitute a repertoire of forms, finishes, and glazes from which the artist develops abstract structures with branching contours and volumes that suggest organic growth. By assembling fragments and exposing their less recognizable sides, Barrão shifts attention toward color, texture, and silhouette, allowing familiar details to emerge intermittently within hybrid bodies. In this process, fragments from the worlds of commodities and decoration exchange visual and social properties, reconfiguring the relationships between the physical qualities of materials and their symbolic allusions. His watercolors and drawings extend this investigation of volume and spatial relationships to paper, where variations in the density of color and texture situate forms at different depths.
Among his individual shows are Teia à Toa, MON – Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil (2025); Stuck Rhyme, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2023); FALA COISA, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel | Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2022); Mufa Caos, Jacarandá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2018); Fora Daqui, Casa França-Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015); Mashups, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, USA (2012); and Natureza Morta, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (2010). The artist has also participated in group shows such as Brasilidade pós Modernismo, CCBB – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro; São Paulo ; Brasília; Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2021); Troposphere: Chinese and Brazilian Contemporary Art, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China (2017) and A Casa, MAC USP – Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2015).
Barrão has works in important public collections such as Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil and MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
