Chris Barnard

The Evidence of Things Seen

2017

Based on one of the painting galleries at the Met, but with a fictionalized sculpture, the form of which is based on an iconic photo by Will Counts, capturing a white segregationist kicking Alex Wilson, a black journalist, in the head on Sep. 23, 1957. Alex Wilson was in Little Rock, AR, as the 'Little Rock Nine' attempted to enter the segregated public schools. [b. 1977 – New York, NY ::: lives & works – New Haven, CT] CHRIS BARNARD received his BA from Yale and his MFA from The University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. Having previously held faculty positions at Denison University, Indiana University, and USC, Barnard is currently associate professor of art at Connecticut College in New London. Barnard’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and New Haven, among other locations, and can be found in public and private collections nationally and internationally. His work is represented by Fred Giampietro Gallery in New Haven, where he and his partner live. artist statement In my work I focus on white supremacy’s relationship to the privileged spaces of my experiences, such as private art and educational institutions. Amidst widening gaps in wealth and opportunity, discussions about race, power, justice and representation—across visual culture broadly—seem more relevant than ever. In many of my compositions, which reference real sites, I have inserted fictional elements to raise questions about the allegiances and priorities of these institutions, as well as people—including myself—who have benefitted from, or continue to support them. The resulting works are representational, but through gestural passages and color and surface manipulation, I aim to suggest instability, corrosion and decay. In the end, I strive to make engaging paintings that suggest dissonance and ambivalence, that entice and challenge viewers, just as painting them does for me. These paintings are rooted in my contemplating Whiteness and emerge from wrestling with the politics of painting—the connections and gaps between painting and lived experience. They also reflect: a love of paint, the act of painting, and the power of the painted image; a regard for practitioners past and present, as well as those for whom practice has not been possible; and an admission of painting’s complicity with hegemonic power. As always, my process remains driven by questions. In this case, questions like: What role does painting play in the face of concrete social crises? How can my paintings respectfully incorporate¬—rather than exploit—relevant and thought-provoking content and imagery? What does it mean to think about racism, dehumanization, injustice, etc., and then to paint such pictures, and in particular as a straight, White man? These questions and this body of work owe much to the work of others, and most acutely to four scholars’ books in particular: The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter; Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities by Craig Steven Wilder; The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander; and White Rage, by Carol Anderson...

This depicts an Art Institute of Chicago gallery space with a fictional sculpture. The two men rendered in the sculpture are based on white youth who attacked and beat Ted Landsmark, a black lawyer...

"Salute" is a salute to the Black Power Salute used as a political demonstration by African-American athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith during their med...

JERED SPRECHER is an artist who makes paintings, drawings, and installations that abstract the landscape to explore the precarious relationship between nature and technology. His wor...

Michael Tole is a figurative painter currently living in Tempe, AZ with his wife and daughters. A Texas native, most of his 20 year long career was spent in Dallas. After relocating to Tempe, his work experienced a significant shift from photo-based paintings of retail interiors to fantastical figurative inventions based on pop culture imagery he has encountered via his two daughters’ taste in music videos, and his proximity to Southern California and it’s particular brand of Disney-esque hedonism. Mr. Tole’s career includes shows in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Miami. His work has been reviewed in Art Forum International...

Michael Tole is a figurative painter currently living in Tempe, AZ with his wife and daughters. A Texas native, most of his 20 year long career was spent...

The medium of choice for Do Byung-Kyu, born in Cheonan, Korea, is dolls: they are both his conceptions and his physical expression. At the same time dolls are also the perfect tool for communicating the artist’s inner self. Expressing himself by means of dolls liberates Do from the restrictions of the mundane world. By embodying in the form of dolls his actions and thoughts, dreams and desires, and even the instincts lying in the depths of the subconscious, he transcends the secular boundaries. Dolls are his alter ego, his other self that he can construct precisely the way he wants. Sublimating the experiences and memories from his youth into various subjects of desire, Do uses dolls to paint a descriptive picture of the ambiguous feelings of contradictions from his childhood when he would abuse and kill a plaything, for example a frog, then bury the body in solemn mourning over its death. These sexual or violent games from his childhood are not likely to be limited to Do’s experiences alone. Most of us can vaguely remember indulging in sadistic acts of sexual love against a doll. Rising above a child’s simple curiosity, it is an intuitive game of the senses we play by ourselves. In a number of Do’s paintings, sticky liquid can be observed dripping down a doll’s face. This brings back recollections of the life inside our mothers’ womb where we were also enveloped by mucous waters, like the amniotic fluid. It refuses contact with the anything, and nothing wants to touch it either. The shape of such a mucous liquid is a protective layer sheltering the intrinsic identity and desires of man. It is also a substitution that satisfies the ego’s instincts otherwise suppressed by social norms. The dolls’ eyes...

Sensational paintings of glass vessels come to life in this dynamic exhibition featuring new works by Korean artist Inkyeong Baek. Demonstrating an uncanny ability to capture her sub...

Sensational paintings of glass vessels come to life in this dynamic exhibition featuring new works by Korean artist Inkyeong Baek. Demonstrating an uncanny ability to capture her sub...

Sensational paintings of glass vessels come to life in this dynamic exhibition featuring new works by Korean artist Inkyeong Baek. Demonstrating an uncanny ability to capture her sub...

Sensational paintings of glass vessels come to life in this dynamic exhibition featuring new works by Korean artist Inkyeong Baek. Demonstrating an uncanny ability to capture her sub...

A muscular male casts his gaze downward towards an unseen object. Over one shoulder a red cape is draped. Set upon an intricate backdrop of ornate floral designs set in gold tones,...