Politics of Reproduction: 50 Years of Popular Prints is the first exhibition devoted entirely to the most iconic work of Álvaro Barrios' oeuvre: los Grabados populares [Popular Prints]. The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Grabados populares. This series has received international acclaim since the seventies, and was acquired in its entirety by the New York MoMA in 2004.
Barrios’ Grabados populares simultaneously celebrate and criticize consumption choices and mass (re)production, anticipating postmodern concerns related to originality, authenticity, and appropriation. By reusing and recycling existing images, Barrios subtly raises concerns about copyright and the role of technical reproducibility.