John Barkley

Moments After

2021

"I am an experimental painter. I have been working on my craft since 1996. I start work with a conceptual point of entry and then work intuitively, in dialogue with the work. The art...

"I am an experimental painter. I have been working on my craft since 1996. I start work with a conceptual point of entry and then work intuitively, in dialogue with the work. The art...

"I am an experimental painter. I have been working on my craft since 1996. I start work with a conceptual point of entry and then work intuitively, in dialogue with the work. The art...

"I am an experimental painter. I have been working on my craft since 1996. I start work with a conceptual point of entry and then work intuitively, in dialogue with the work. The art...

Artist Commentary: This painting was finished in the moment when all things in a painting come together with the right balance of form, The colors in th...

Abstract, 1971 By Dan Howard (b. 1931) Unframed: 29" x 35" Framed: 30" x 36" Signed Lower Left Influenced by artists of such varying styles as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, De Kooning and Jack Levine, as well as many of the German Neo-Expressionists*, Dan Howard's work often blurs the line between representational* and abstract art*. His experimentation with different canvas preparations, his use of intense colors and his expressive brush strokes have created a myriad of visual combinations in his characteristic larger-sized oil paintings. The result is an emphasis on audience participation and the role of individual interpretation. "I want to make the viewer part of the process. That makes for a richer experience," Howard says. Throughout his career, Howard has been both a dedicated art teacher-administrator and a gifted professional artist. He chaired the departments of art at Arkansas State University, Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Howard has received 100 prizes, awards and honors including the top awards in the three longest running national open painting competitions: Society of Four Arts, Palm Beach, Fla.; Butler Institute, Youngstown, Ohio; and Chautauqua Institution, New York. The Omaha World-Herald has acknowledged Howard as "Nebraska's leading award-winning artist." His work is a part of more than 600 public, private and corporate collections including Hallmark Cards, West Law Publishing, United Airlines, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M), Holiday Inn...

Roland Ayers (1932-2017). Untitled, 1983. Ink on paper, measures 17 x 23 inches. Unframed and unmounted. Signed and dated lower left. Ayers holds the distinction of having participated in the first important survey of African-Americans, Contemporary Black Artists in America, a 1971 show at The Whitney. Biography: Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...

Jesse Ross's paintings explore the complexities of identity and transformation, blending his mixed settler and Stó:lō Nation heritage with contemporary artistic expression. He uses f...