bARBER

The print, b and e, can be read as a self-portrait though it is also a representation of a pivotal moment in a private relationship between the artist, “b”, and persons unknown, “e”. Here, bARBER has broken the body down into lines and shapes and added substance through texture and color. Limited to six colors—green, pink, Kermit, Chocolate, gray, Grapes— bARBER chose each deliberately. A bright, warm green swims around a central figure made up of a rectangular and cruciform body with a large, round, multicolored head. The use of brown seems to connote skin tone, and thus identity, while negative space throughout the “body” perhaps signals an emptiness left in the wake of this event. Composed of two shades of yellow and crude, decisive lines, a sun shines down on the central figure potentially causing the brilliant greens and tiny bursts of eggplant and pink drawn in floral forms, which together seem to signify change, rebirth, and renewal. What is taking place is purposefully opaque, but how we’re supposed to feel is mapped onto the print through a composition and color scheme that signify transformation and growth coupled with loss.

B and e manages to focus our attention on the narrative at play instead of the gender, ethnicity, or sexuality of the people involved. Whether self-portrait or double-portrait, the work subverts traditional epistemologies of portraiture by utilizing abstraction as a tool for abolition by disregarding and reimagining the markers that define and ultimately confine us. Instead, bARBER has forced the viewer to contend with emotions that change and affect all our lives.

Graduating Cum Laude in the MFA program at the University of Iowa, bARBER uses interdisciplinary art practices to articulate various testimonies within and surrounding Black America. Most recent scholarships include 2019 MAP Fund grant recipient, fellowship at Fontenelle Forest, The Union Contemporary, Stanley Grant award from the University of Iowa, Alonzo Davis Award from Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Selected exhibitions include but are not limited to Fontenelle Forest (Omaha, NE), Englert Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Museum of Science (Chicago), Public Artwork on Atlanta BeltLine (Atlanta, GA), Rialto Theatre (Atlanta, GA), C4 Atlanta (Atlanta, GA), Lexington Theatre (Kentucky), Mason Murer Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Gallery 4731 (Detroit, MI), Levitt Gallery, (Iowa City).