by Liam Barr

Liam Barr (b. Scotland 1966) immigrated to New Zealand (1974). Barr trained and worked as a graphic designer in Perth, Aust. before returning to New Zealand (2004) to further his art practice. The exploration of people and their peculiarities lies at the essence of Barr’s work and he continues to define this experience expressed through meticulous attention to form and structure within the development of his paintings. Over time, marked variations in subject matter are explored between each series of works from magic surrealism, tiki surrealism, historical narratives and pop culture through to more contemporary image set of his current work. Weaving stories punctuated with symbolism, iconography, humour and pathos and often including fauna as an extension and connecting relationship to our inherent and ancient DNA coding.

Barr’s paintings have shown in public exhibitions, held in private collections globally and has been commissioned by NZDF among others. 2020 has a retrospective of Barr’s work exhibited throughout NZ public spaces via digital format. This initiative extends to Turku, Finland as part of the International Urban Art Exchange where Barr’s work was exhibited in super large scale digital format. www.liambarr.co.nz