36 × 36 in
 in
 cm
$3,600
This painting, Moving Silence, strikes a dynamic balance between minimalist painting and the vibrancy of pop art. Contemporary artist Elizabeth Barnes creates intricate patterns of poured paint whose patterns pulses with energy. This painting calls up the history of female Abstract Expressionists and Minimalists working in the 1960s who fought to legitimize women artists in the male-dominated field of abstract and hard edge painting.
For Barnes, “Colour is light. Colour is nature. Colour is very important to my work. In this quasi-minimalist painting I use intense saturated colour combined with a poured paint passage to allude to a revision of mid-20th century narratives and minimalism as a human-centred phenomena. As in much of my work, the paradox of vital natural forces placed in tangent and integrated with human-centered design practices poses questions as to what art means and what it can convey in the 21st century.”
Artist Statement
My work is realized through the persistence of painting and its ability to embrace paradox. I came of age in the waning days of hippies and the Viet Nam War. I have witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of global capitalism. I have lived in two countries and traveled physically and psychically to many more. I have faced and survived a life threatening illness. I remember the quaint sci-fi visions of a future that has already happened. I have found solace in the natural world and now watch it dying. All of these experiences are embedded in the work.Â
| Medium | Painting |
| Signature | Signed |
| Frame | Framed |
| Condition | excellent |
| Seller | Artist |
| Location | Vancouver, Canada |
| Provenance | The Artist |
Contemporary artist Elizabeth Barnes’ abstract works investigate the relationship of painting to history, culture, and technology through experimentations with space, materiality, process and colour. Central to this is a visual exploration of painting itself, its unpredictable nature, and processes of experimentation and layering. Her paintings operate on a duality between the concealing and revealing of a sense of place into the flattened space of a modernist grid.The modernist grid has been a core component of 20th century painting, where artists used it as a representational device to explore the shifting networks created between paintings and their viewers. Central to Barnes’ meditations on the modernist grid is art critic David Joselit’s contention that painting embodies dislocation.Â
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Barnes came of age in the waning days of hippies and the Vietnam War. Her works explore not only contemporary history, but her personal experiences. Â
Barnes graduated from the Tyler School of Art in 1990 with a BFA in Painting, and in 1993 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an MFA in Studio Arts. Alongside her artistic practice, Barnes has spent her artistic career teaching. She has taught at the University of North Carolina, Portland State University, Portland Community College, University of the Fraser Valley, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.Â
Her work has been shown in exhibitions across North America, including a solo show at the Candine Gallery in Vancouver in 2022. Her work has also been in exhibitions across Canada, such as Arbutus Gallery in Surrey, the Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary, Pendulum Modern Art in Vancouver and View Modern Art in Victoria. Her international exhibitions include Portland State University and the Studio 333 Artist Collective in Oregon and the Mary Tomas Gallery in Dallas, Texas.
Barnes’ work is held in the private and public collections including the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the Cenovus Collection, the Encana Collection, the University of Arizona, and Portland Community College.Â
Elizabeth Barnes lives and works in Vancouver, BC.
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