Bernardo Vallarino
Size Matters – The Golden Rule
November 2, 2024 – December 7, 2024
Ro2 Art proudly presents Size Matters – The Golden Rule, a striking exhibition by Fort Worth-based artist Bernardo Vallarino. Renowned for his mixed-media sculptures and installations, Vallarino’s practice delves into the unsettling intersections of violence, power, and human suffering. Through meticulously crafted objects, he challenges viewers to confront the hypocrisy inherent in society’s values versus its actions. This exhibition, opening on November 2, 2024, features a large-scale installation and multidisciplinary works that explore firearms and their cultural significance through the lens of fetishism. Vallarino employs the term “fetish” in both its historical sense — as objects believed to possess magical or protective powers — and its contemporary association with sexual fixation. His use of luxurious materials like black leather, gold leaf, and black flocking, juxtaposed with starkly symbolic imagery such as firearms, bullets, and ants, brings forth an arresting dialogue on societal obsession with objects designed to end life.
In Size Matters – The Golden Rule, Vallarino’s practice is not merely an exercise in form but an act of moral provocation. He intricately combines gun embellishments and tattoo-like scroll patterns, along with visual references to insects, to challenge our perceptions of protection and power. In particular, the presence of ants in his work serves as a metaphorical middle ground, representing both destruction and unity, cooperation, and decay. By incorporating insects, he draws parallels between how humans mistreat each other and the perceived expendability of smaller creatures. Vallarino’s work navigates these complex issues, encouraging reflection on how society reconciles its fascination with weapons with both secular and religious moral standards. This exhibition continues his ongoing exploration of the disconnect between the rhetoric of human life and the behaviors of humanity, prompting viewers to examine the consequences of power dynamics on a global scale. Size Matters – The Golden Rule will be on view through December 7, 2024, at Ro2 Art Gallery, with an opening reception on November 2
from 7 to 10 PM.
About The Artist
Bernardo Vallarino is a Colombian-American mixed-media sculptor and installation artist interested in geopolitical issues of violence and human suffering. His works reflect his observations on the hypocrisy he perceives existing between the rhetoric of human life and the violent behavior of humanity. With his artworks, Vallarino strives to engage his audience visually but also morally and philosophically, finding inspiration in history, the media, his personal experiences, and his lifelong interest in insects and entomology. Vallarino, a NALAC (National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures) fellow, graduated with a BFA in sculpture from Texas Christian University, an MFA in the same field from Texas Woman’s University. He has exhibited widely at galleries and nonprofit spaces in Texas, Oklahoma, York, England, and Barcelona Spain. Vallarino received the 2020 SMU’s Moss/Chumley North Texas Artist Award from the Meadow’s Museum of Art and has displayed artwork at the Amarillo Museum of Art, Arlington Museum of Art, and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.
Artist Statement
The abuse of power by groups or individuals often leads to human displacement, mass killings, and other tragic events, usually involving the use of weapons. This often leads to a cycle of escalating violence, as the natural response is to acquire bigger and stronger weapons for deterrence. In this body of work, firearms and other ballistic weapons are examined through the dual meaning of the word “fetish”: an object of cultural relevance that is believed to have a magical power to protect or aid its owner, as well as the sexual fixation of an object or a body part for sexual satisfaction or expression. The works are intended to provoke reflection on how we reconcile the widespread use and ownership of objects designed to end life with religious
and secular moral standards.
