Bernardo Vallarino
Size Matters – The Golden Rule
November 2, 2024 – December 7, 2024
RO2ART
BERNARDO VALLARINO + CARMEN MENZA | THRU DEC07
About RO2ART
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.
carmen menza: patterns of disturbance
November 2, 2024 – December 7, 2024
Ro2 Art is proud to present Patterns of Disturbance, an immersive exhibition by Dallas-based interdisciplinary artist Carmen Menza. Known for her explorations of perceptual phenomena, Menza’s newest body of work delves into themes of reflection, disquiet, and hope through light-based installations and neon text statements. In Patterns of Disturbance, Menza harnesses light not just as a medium but as an active force, using materials like neon, LED lights, glass, resin, and mirrors to alter the viewer’s sensory experience. Her use of optical illusions and textural elements such as reflective surfaces invites viewers to become part of the work, challenging their perceptions of space, time, and the self.
This exhibition continues Menza’s fascination with the properties of light and language, examining how words shape our human connections, particularly in the context of current political and social climates. Through text-based works, she navigates fundamental human rights and presents cautionary statements that resonate with today’s environment. Employing techniques like heat-gun manipulation to melt and transform materials, Menza’s process embraces chance occurrence, resulting in an ephemeral quality that underscores the fleeting nature of existence. As viewers engage with these light-activated pieces, they encounter an interplay of disturbance and beauty, a reflection of Menza’s acknowledgment of the ‘dimming of hope’ in recent years and the resistance required to preserve freedoms in an increasingly fragmented world. Opening November 2, 2024, Patterns of Disturbance will be on view through December 7, at Ro2 Art Gallery, 2606 Bataan St., Dallas, TX, with an opening reception from 7 to 10 PM.
About the Artist
Carmen Menza is an interdisciplinary artist creating fine art and technology based installations utilizing light, video, interactive software, music composition and sound design. Her work explores themes of time, space, color, perception and human connection. Her installations have been created for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, TX, the city of Dallas, TX, the city of Manassas, VA, the McKinney Avenue Contemporary Museum, Dallas, TX, Meow Wolf, Grapevine, TX, Dallas Aurora Light & Sound Festival, UTSW Clements University Hospital, Dallas, TX, Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art, Dallas, TX and more. Her films have screened at the Dallas International Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, Austin Film Festival and the KERA Public television show – Frame of Mind. She is a TACA New Works Fund Grant recipient, a Dallas Office of Arts and Culture – Arts Activate Grant recipient, a Cedars Union Artist Residency recipient and a Virginia Commission for the Arts, Project Grant New Works recipient.
She is a founding member of Texas Vignette, a non-profit organization that promotes the arts by providing support, education and producing the annual Vignette Art Fair, showing and amplifying the work of women artists throughout Texas.
She has served as a juror for the Artist Residency Fund Grant and the New Works Fund through The Arts Community Alliance (TACA) Grants, Dallas, TX, as a Public Art Committee member for the City of Mesquite, Mesquite, TX, and since its inception in 2007 to be a part of the efforts of the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center in raising funds through their annual Art for Advocacy event.
Artist talks include the Amon Carter Museum, Ft. Worth, TX, Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art, Dallas, TX, The Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, TX, Wade College, Dallas, TX and the Cedars Union, Dallas, TX.
She received her BFA in jazz guitar performance from the University of North Texas.
