Carla Barros’ art doesn’t emerge from a blank canvas, but from the white noise of our time —
the infinite stream of images that defines contemporary experience. Her journey as an artist
began during the isolation of the pandemic, a perfect metaphor for her practice: in the
confinement of the physical world, she discovered the vastness of the digital ether — not as
an escape, but as a space to be excavated. With the sensitivity of a surrealist and the
precision of an editor, she doesn’t create images; she frees them from their original contexts
to build poetic ecosystems that map our collective psyche.
Her process is a form of digital archaeology. When she encounters a photograph, she sees
not what it is, but what it could become — the first layer of a latent narrative. Armed with a
toolkit of over 80 apps, which she commands with the finesse of a master craftswoman,
Carla dives into a ritual of photo manipulation, collage, and transposition. What’s crucial here
is her intentional refusal to use generative artificial intelligence. Her work is a declaration of
human intuition — an act of intimate, manual curatorship amidst a sea of data, a deliberate
intervention of her "non-logical, non-Cartesian self" at the heart of the machine.
Recognition for her singular visual language came swiftly. What began as a “therapeutic
hobby” soon propelled her to the center of the global art scene, with exhibitions in New York,
Barcelona, and Cascais. This international rise was no accident; it’s a testament to how her
work speaks a universal language. She translates the fragmented logic of our digital age —
the experience of living across multiple windows, layered in memory and desire — into a
visual grammar that feels at once oddly familiar and deeply revealing.
Here, her art transcends technique and enters the realm of philosophy. “We are always under
construction or renovation, just like an image being edited,” she reflects. This is the key to
unlocking her work. Her pieces aren’t finished products; they are frozen processes — the
visible topography of a psyche in constant becoming. To contemplate one of her creations is
to recognize something within yourself. Her work functions like a mirror: it doesn’t reflect your
face, but the fragmented architecture of your mind.
Instagram: @photoart_by_carla