Barretto
CHICO BARRETTO
“Chico Barretto is a self-taught visual artist whose work carries the imprint of many places. Born in the Philippines, he grew up among a tapestry of languages and traditions, with the indigenous heritage of his province shaping his earliest sense of symbol and story. Later, years living in Singapore and traveling across the Asia-Pacific deepened his awareness of cultural exchange and gave him a distinctly global perspective—one that continues to echo through his art.
Now based in Oakland, California and working primarily in oil for painting and ceramics for sculpture, Barretto revisits themes of universality of experiences and connection through figuration, while his recent abstractions reach toward transcendence and consciousness beyond form. His dual practice as a designer and artist lends his work both precision and openness: structured yet instinctive, contemplative yet immediate. Each piece becomes a meeting place for cultures, memories, and states of being—an offering of reflection on what binds us together across distance and difference.”
