Frieze Masters 2025: Vera Chaves Barcellos | Jorge Riveros

The paintings by Jorge Riveros were created in the 1960s and 1970s, during the artist’s time in Germany, where he was a member of the Semikolon and Konstruktives Gestalten artistic groups. These works blend geometric abstraction with pre-Hispanic symbolism—cosmic signs merge with pure forms like rectangles, triangles, and semicircles in a totemic balance.

Riveros was the only Latin American artist in these groups. While he was welcomed by local artists in Bonn, he remained something of a solitary figure in a country that did not share the same visual references as his homeland. Commenting on the influences of this period, researcher Eduardo Serrano writes in the exhibition catalogue Sueños Pospuestos, which accompanies Riveros’s show at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá:

“It is evident, then, that his path toward abstraction was shaped by various influences, among the most significant: Joaquín Torres García; the Bauhaus legacy; the vibrant abstract-artistic scene in Germany; exhibitions in galleries and museums; and the avant-garde interest in this artistic direction. All of this created a favorable environment for the artist to shape his thinking in relation to geometry and ultimately allow his inclination toward rigor and precision to emerge.”

Jorge Riveros studied at the Universidad Nacional de Bogotá from 1951 to 1956, where he graduated in drawing and painting. In 1964, he moved to Madrid to study mural painting at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. However, in 1965, he relocated once again, settling in Bonn, Germany, where he abandoned figurative grammar almost entirely and embraced geometric abstraction –a style that would define his career. He remained in Germany for a decade before returning to Bogotá in 1975, where he currently lives and works.

His works have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at institutions including: Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain; Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá – MAMBO, Colombia; Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Atchugarry – MACA, Uruguay; Museo de Arte Moderno Ramírez Villamizar, Pamplona, Colombia; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima, Peru; Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany; Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Germany; Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany; Stadthalle, Bad Godesberg, Germany.

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Veras Chaves Barcellos’ work on display at Frieze Masters were produced between 1969 and 1970. This series of objects was conceived as “open works”, a term the artist often uses to describe these variable sets of engravings that require viewer participation to form one of many possible combinations. There is no single correct or final arrangement; instead, the pieces can be displayed and ordered in various ways.

There will be reactivated works during Frieze Masters through a series of new assembly configurations. This movement transforms them into dynamic, non-static objects– a gesture pursued by many artists since the late 1950s.

Recently the artist has participated in exhibitions such as: “Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s – 2020s”, California Museum of Photography, USA (2025); “Mirror of the Mind”, El Espacio 23, Miami, USA (2024); “To Write Down All Their Names”, Museo Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain (2023) and Palais Populaire, Berlin (2022); “Off Register: Publishing Experiments by Women Artists in Latin America, 1960-1990” (2023), Center for Book Arts, New York, USA; “Chão da Praça: obras de la colección Pinacoteca” (2023), Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; “O estranho desaparecimento de Vera Chaves Barcellos” (2023), Fundação Iberê, Porto Alegre, Brazil; “Los enemigos de la poesía: resistencias en América Latina”, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2021); “Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985”, Hammer Museum, EEUU, Brooklyn Museum, USA, and Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil (2018). 

Her works are part of numerous public and private collections: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; MACBA-Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil, among others.