Mark Barry: Petals to Metal and Other Stories

Mark Barry is a painter and a sculptor. His dual approach to artmaking allows for deeper exploration, with each medium informing the other. By shifting between painting and sculpture, Barry reinforces his exploration of form, space, and narrative, and captures fleeting moments of energy and movement. His fascination with everyday objects—cars, potted plants, ice cream cones, dancing figures—highlights his desire to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.

His sculptures bring movement and playfulness to everyday moments, transforming simple imagery into striking contemporary vignettes. His 12-foot potted flower series exemplifies his movement between painting and sculpture, translating painted forms into large three-dimensional works that retain bold, graphic qualities while gaining a new sense of space.

Barry employs strong colors and simplified yet expressive forms to create a flat, illustrative quality in his paintings. This carries into his sculpture through prominent silhouettes and exaggerated proportions. Whether in wood, ceramics, or fabricated steel, his sculptures emanate spontaneity and energy, maintaining the immediacy and impact of his paintings.

Barry’s use of silhouettes helps transform fleeting experiences into lasting memory. They invite viewers to see meaning in overlooked moments. Silhouettes have a rich artistic history, from early portraits to contemporary explorations by artists such as Kara Walker and Yinka Shonibare, who use them to address themes of race, identity, and history. In Barry’s work, silhouettes add abstraction and emotional depth, allowing simple forms to convey complex narratives. They encourage us to look beyond the surface and find deeper stories within each shadow.

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