artist bio

Bernardo Vallarino is a Colombian-American sculptor and installation artist based in Fort Worth, Texas. His work explores human suffering, violence, displacement, political power, and the ways societies determine whose lives are valued and whose are rendered disposable. His practice addresses subjects including migration, gun violence, political and religious ideology, nationalism, social hypocrisy, and the abuse of power.

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Vallarino describes his approach as pragmatic surrealism, creating familiar yet unsettling objects and environments grounded in real social and political conditions. His work often draws from history, current events, religion, popular culture, and the natural world. Insects and entomology have been a longstanding influence, providing both a conceptual and formal vocabulary through scale, repetition, classification, and anonymity.

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Raised in Colombia and living in the United States since 1995, Vallarino’s work reflects a perspective shaped by both cultures and by an ongoing interest in how power, violence, and human value are understood across different societies. His work is intended to engage viewers visually while also prompting questions about morality, empathy, complicity, and the treatment of “the other.”

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Vallarino earned a BFA in Sculpture from Texas Christian University and an MFA in Sculpture from Texas Woman’s University. He is a NALAC Fellow and recipient of the 2020 Moss/Chumley North Texas Artist Award from the Meadows Museum of Art at Southern Methodist University. His work has been exhibited at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Arlington Museum of Art, Amarillo Museum of Art, Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts, and San Angelo Museum of Art, as well as galleries and nonprofit spaces in Texas, Oklahoma, England, and Spain.