The Erin Pearson Collection

A private collection · Brisbane

Soul Tribe
Soul Tribe

Soul Tribe

Carlos Barrios

The Work

A monumental, densely populated painting, two metres square, filled edge to edge with faces — family, friends, animals, and symbolic figures woven together in Barrios' loose, emotive figurative style. The work exists in two forms: its original palette of deep blues and purples, and its current form, reworked entirely in warm pinks, oranges, and yellows. Certain faces were held constant through both versions, anchoring the painting's history within itself.

In 2023, my marriage fell apart, and it became clear that the family I'd asked Carlos to paint had never really existed the way I'd believed it to. It was a painful thing to sit with — a piece so personal, so specific to a version of my life that turned out not to be true. I messaged Carlos, at a loss for what to do with it. Without hesitation, he offered to repaint the entire thing for me, at no cost. He arranged a courier, took it back to his studio in Currumbin, and completely reworked it — keeping elements of the original, including my grandfather and my children, but transforming the palette into the pinks, yellows, and oranges I asked for. It came back as "Soul Tribe" — a painting of the people who were truly, specially there for me through the hardest period of my life. Carlos was one of them, in his own quiet, generous way. This act of kindness is something I will never forget, and this piece will never leave my collection. Above every other piece I own, this one is simply not for sale.

Year
2020 (repainted 2023)
Medium
Mixed media on thick watercolour paper, mounted to canvas — a technique unique to Barrios' practice
Image size
2000 mm x 2000 mm
Framed size
2040 mm x 2040 mm
Catalogue
0062

Provenance

I met Carlos through Mitchell Fine Art Gallery, who represent him in Brisbane — I was doing framing work for the gallery, and we'd both attend exhibitions of mutual friends and artists also represented there, becoming close friends along the way. In 2020, while building a house with a large wall specifically in mind for it, I traded him equal value in framing for this piece, originally titled "Spirits of the Family." I wanted something that represented my family as I understood it at the time — myself, my husband, our children, our pets, and at the front, my grandfather, who I'd been very close to and who had passed away in 2019.

Part of my personal collection — not for sale.

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Framing

The piece is framed in a simple, wide-faced float frame — oak, stained black — understated enough to let the painting itself hold all the presence in the room. Getting a piece this size up and down wasn't a simple job, and my dear friend Scott Dunn of Art Hanging Brisbane handled it for me more than once, including through the repaint. Scott was another gift through that whole period — a man of deep faith who would call just to check on me, always with some piece of scripture ready from memory for whatever I was going through. Between Carlos's generosity and Scott's steady, faithful presence, this piece carries more than one act of kindness inside it. Looking at it now, what I feel most is simple: I am loved. I am not alone in this world.

About Carlos Barrios

Carlos Barrios was born in El Salvador in 1966 and migrated to Australia in 1990, going on to study at what became the National Art School in Sydney. He now lives and works in the Currumbin Valley on the Gold Coast. The son of an archaeologist, Barrios grew up surrounded by ancient artifacts and art, and began painting figures and creatures from his imagination at the age of six. When civil war broke out in El Salvador when he was ten, he found himself illustrating the horrific scenes around him — and in the candlelit dark of blackouts, he painted the creatures he saw watching from the shadows. Despite this, the central focus of his work is to paint the good he believes exists in everyone — "I must paint people," as he describes it. He is represented by Mitchell Fine Art in Brisbane, and has been a finalist in the Blake Prize, the Sulman Prize, and the Brisbane Portrait Prize, among others.