Barbara Rachko

Painter, NY, USA

Barbara Rachko is an American contemporary artist, blogger, author, and subject of a multi-award-winning documentary. She is based in New York City and is best known for her remarkable pastel-on-sandpaper paintings. She is represented by galleries in London, Sweden, India, and the United States. She is a member of the International Visual Association of Visual Artists. Barbara uses her large collection of Mexican and Guatemalan folk art – masks, carved wooden animals, papier-mâché figures, and toys – to create one-of-a-kind pastel-on-sandpaper paintings that combine reality and fantasy and depict personal narratives. In 2017 she began work on a series called, Bolivianos, using as source material her stunning photographs of a mask exhibition at the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz. Her pastel paintings are bold, striking, and powerful. For more than three decades, she has been “Revolutionizing Pastel as Fine Art!”