Cara Barer’s work begins with creating sculptural forms from a variety of reference and vintage books, such as encyclopedias. Using curling irons, clothes, water and other techniques, Barer manipulates the books, considering the ways society’s quest for information, and the sources we use, have changed. Once they are elegantly coiled and crumpled, Barer makes photographic scans of her sculptures, capturing a unique view of books as objects. As we continue to rely more on technology, we rely less on printed sources of information. The results of her process are elegant, meditative images. Barer presents familiar subject matter in ways we have never seen it before. In her latest work, she uses books of her own creation, including sheet music, wallpaper, and pictures from her travels, and captures them after they’ve been transformed into magnificent abstract compositions.
Barer received an Associate's Degree in Fashion Marketing from the Art Institute of Houston, Houston, TX, and studied at Glassel School of Art, Houston, TX. She has shown her work across North America including Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA, Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, Kalamazoo, MI, the Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY, and the Gallery at Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport, PA. Her work is in collections such as Bloomingdale’s, New York, NY, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, UCLA Special Collections, Los Angeles, CA, and was selected by the US State Department’s Art in Embassies Program to be displayed in the Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine.