Barry "H.Fish" Pressing (born in 1948) is an American-born contemporary artist and sculptor living in

Beechworth Beechworth is a well-preserved historical town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. At the , Beechworth had a population of 3,859. Beechworth's many histor ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

. He is best known as H.Fish after his childhood nickname and his H.Fish Studios.

Early life and education

Pressing grew up in La Mesa, California, nine miles east of downtown San Diego, where he graduated from

Helix High School Helix High School, in La Mesa, California, is a charter high school built in 1952. It received its charter in 1998. Part of the Grossmont Union High School District, it serves a mid-level socioeconomic community and has a student body of approxi ...

. He attended

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in Sa ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

and graduated from

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

Career

His artistic career began with creating poster art for

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

and

Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...

. In 1970, he opened a combination hot-rod shop/art studio called Hog Fish, so named after his childhood nickname. The studio was influenced by surf art, chopper and hot-rod fabrication. In addition, as a contributor at the time to the

underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

movement, he illustrated comics, including with psychedelic poster designer

Rick Griffin Richard Alden "Rick" Griffin (June 18, 1944 – August 18, 1991) was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. As a contributor to the underground comix movement, his work appeared regularly in ...

and cartoonist

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...

at the comic magazine ''

Zap Comix ''Zap Comix'' is an underground comix series which was originally part of the youth counterculture of the late 1960s. While a few small-circulation self-published satirical comic books had been printed prior to this, ''Zap'' became the model for ...

''. Pressing relocated to Australia in 2003, moving his studio there. His artwork regularly appears in galleries and at art festivals. In 2014, a collection of 34 pieces of his work that took two years to complete were on display at an exhibition titled "Visions" at the Manning Regional Gallery in

Taree Taree is a town on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. Taree and nearby Cundletown were settled in 1831 by William Wynter. Since then Taree has grown to a population of 26,381, and is the centre of a significant agricultural distri ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. He uses a series of odd-shaped canvases, along with a mixture of enamels, lacquers and urethanes. His inspiration comes from his "surfing heydays in the US and Hawaii in the early '60s" as well as "psychedelic poster art he created in San Francisco during the 'hippie movement,'" as noted by the ''

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

Advocate''. In December 2019 for one month, Pressing's contemporary works were on display at the solo H.Fish Art Exhibition at the Arcadia Gallery in Beechworth.

Personal life

Pressing lives in Beechworth, in north-east Victoria, with his wife Kerry.

References

External links

H.Fish Studios official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pressing, Barry Living people 1948 births Artists from San Diego 20th-century American artists 20th-century Australian artists 21st-century American artists 21st-century Australian artists American contemporary artists Australian contemporary artists Sculptors from California Artists from Victoria (Australia)