Charles A. Hartman Fine Art is pleased to introduce Hayley Barker, the newest artist to be represented by the gallery. With her latest series of paintings, Barker uses the notion of monsters as a foundation upon which to build composites of “the other”. Heavily influenced by The Symbolists, the creatures she presents in brightly hued, highly decorative, at times lyrical, compositions are intended to embody binary opposites. Simultaneously evoking fear and empathy, each work contains elements that are at once seductive and repulsive, awkward yet elegant. Rendered with a style that fluctuates between masterful representational drawing, graphic cartoon-like forms, and gestural marks of chance, one can identify the skins and anatomies of fruit, sea life, insects and mammals. We are invited to look closely, recognize and wonder.
Hayley Barker is a Portland-based artist who teaches at Pacific Northwest College of Art and Marylhurst University. Born and raised in central Oregon, she earned MA and MFA degrees in Intermedia from the University of Iowa, and an MAT in Art Education from Lewis & Clark College. In addition to venues in Spain, France, New York, California and Washington, her work has been included in several group shows in Portland since 2004, including The Art Gym, Froelick Gallery, Disjecta, PICA’s TBA Festival, the PDX Film and Video Festival, and Reed Arts Week. Recently, her work was featured in New American Paintings.
Hayley Barker is a Portland-based artist who teaches at Pacific Northwest College of Art and Marylhurst University. Born and raised in central Oregon, she earned MA and MFA degrees in Intermedia from the University of Iowa, and an MAT in Art Education from Lewis & Clark College. In addition to venues in Spain, France, New York, California and Washington, her work has been included in several group shows in Portland since 2004, including The Art Gym, Froelick Gallery, Disjecta, PICA’s TBA Festival, the PDX Film and Video Festival, and Reed Arts Week. Recently, her work was featured in New American Paintings.