Barry Barker is a British Contemporary Art curator and gallerist. He is head of the Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts at the
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieve ...
.
Previously, Barker worked with
Nigel Greenwood and was exhibitions officer at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...
London and the
John Hansard Gallery
The John Hansard Gallery is a contemporary visual art gallery and part of the University of Southampton.
History
The John Hansard Building was originally located in building 50 in the University of Southampton building coding scheme. It wa ...
before becoming Director of the
Arnolfini
Arnolfini is an international arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, artist's performance, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a ...
in
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
1986-1991 overseeing a refurbishment of the gallery. Following this, Barker was briefly with the
South Bank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge).
It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...
before becoming a Director of the
Lisson Gallery
Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery with locations in London and New York, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents over 50 artists such as Art & Language, Ryan Gander, Carmen Herrera, Richard Long, John Latham, Sol ...
.
[Cork, Richard. Everything Seemed Possible: Art in the 1970s. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2003.] Barker's main areas of interest have been
conceptual art
Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...
and
minimal and he had an influential role in many artists' careers of the last thirty years, especially
Anish Kapoor
Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK ...
. In 1986, he was co-curator of "Falls the Shadow" with
Jon Thompson at the
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...
.
Recent publications
*''La costrucció de la vida de…/ The Making of the Life of...'' in El que vols que digui…Jo ja sóc mort/ What you want me to say… I'm already dead/ Lo que quieres que diga…Yoya estoy muerto. Edited by V.I. Brichs. Publisher: Fundació Joan Miró 2006, .
*''
emaging the world, the work of Jane and Louise Wilson'' in Jane and Louise Wilson. Editors: F. J. Panera. Publisher: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2003. .
Major exhibitions curated
*'Our Magic Hour (Ugo Rondinone)'. Photographic exhibition University of Brighton Gallery, 7 October – 2 November 2002.
*David Austen film Crackers, the central feature of the David Austen exhibition at the Milton Keynes Gallery, 10 February – 23 March 2007.
References
External links
Bio at University of Brighton
Living people
British curators
Year of birth missing (living people)
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