Barry Barker (1980)

Description

Barry Barker has thirty years experience of working within the contemporary visual arts as a curator, writer and director of both publicly and privately funded arts organisations. These include the Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, I.C.A. London, Arnolfini, Bristol, and John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, Hayward Gallery, London and the Lisson Gallery, London. During this period Barker's main area of research has centred on curatorship and exhibition making, predominately working directly with artists leading to many significant exhibitions, both one person and group exhibitions. He has worked closely with three generations of artists on publications, exhibitions, film and video. They include Marcel Broodthaers, Lawrence Weiner, Daniel Buren, Art & Language, Rebecca Horn, Richard Long, George Baselitz, Tony Cragg, Anish Kapoor, Douglas Gordon and Christine Borland. Key group exhibitions to which he has contributed, include: Pier + Ocean, Hayward Gallery and Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, 1980, L'Indifferent, John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, 1985 and Falls The Shadow, Hayward Gallery, 1986.

Barker has also been concerned with the relationship between contemporary art and interior architecture. Significantly one outcome of this research was his commissioning of Bruce McLean, artist and David Chipperfield, architect to collaborate on the re-design of the Arnolfini bar and restaurant which opened in 1988 to much critical acclaim. More recently he was involved in the early research stages of the collaboration between Anish Kapoor and Lord Foster on a sculpture project for the Great Court at the British Museum. From 1989 to 1993, Barker's collaborations with artists and his research into their working practice led to his working with the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust in initiating the Sculpture Trust Studio at Dean Clough in Halifax, which provided resources and space for invited international artists to make and exhibit new work.

[...] As head of the Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts at the University of Brighton, Barker has invited artists to collaborate on a programme of exhibitions for the University gallery which will be particular to that gallery space. It is intended that the artist's response to this invitation be documented and made available to others who are interested in this area of research, as both a means of furthering the knowledge of an individual artist's work and to encourage a wider understanding of the role of the curator and gallery.

Juries, Committees and Editorial Boards:
Member of the Royal College of Art Court, 1974 - 1977
Chairman of Visual Arts Panel, Southern Arts Association, 1982 - 1985
Turner Prize Jury, 1989
Selector New Contemporaries, 1994
Afterall Magazine: Advisory Board, 2001 - date
Barry Barker has been advisor and consultant to many arts organisations including the Arts Council of England Collection and to art collections in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.S.A. He has also been advisor for several international arts administration courses.'

Source: www.brighton.ac.uk/arts/research/3_0_research_activity/3_2_0_research_staff/3_2_02_barker_barry.htm