Artist: Barry Underwood

 Blue Line, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 39.5 x 50 inches

Aurora (Green), 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 36 x 36 inches

 Headlands II, 2009, Archival Pigment Print,  39 x 50 inches

 Fish II, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 38 x 50 inches

Lightning Bugs, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 36 x 36 inches

Bio:

“Barry has received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Indiana University Northwest in 1990 in Theatre and 1992 in Photography. He earned his Masters in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1995. In 2007 Barry participated in a thematic residency Imaginary Places, at Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada. In 2008 he participated in an Artists’ Enclave residency at I-Park in East Haddam, Connecticut.
Last summer he participated in a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. His work has been exhibited internationally: Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, in Santa Monica, California, Photo Miami 2007 in Miami, Florida, Altered Landscape, a two person exhibition at Summit Gallery, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Recently, Barry’s work was recently exhibited at NEXT 2009 The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art and Scope in Basel, Switzerland, and Earth Engines a two-person exhibition at Johansson Projects in Oakland, California. His work is included in several corporate and private collections. Upcoming exhibitions include Staged a group exhibition at Skew Gallery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 2010, and a solo exhibition at Skew Gallery in May 2010.”

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Barry+Underwood/114861.html

 Relation to my work:

I have always loved Tokihiro Sato’s work and came across Underwood’s recently, which is quite similar. I really enjoy Underwood’s use of color. His images have such a theatrical quality that I can appreciate. His use of light exaggerates the landscape and plays with the viewer’s imagination. I can relate to his use of defamiliarizing common objects.

Inspirational Quotes:

“I’ve started thinking more about environmental issues. Wondering about the kind of damage that photography is doing, the damage that even I as an artist am responsible for, and how can I help change things.”

“What does it mean to be an environmentalist as a photographer? It’s almost in contradiction.”

“I think about all that and try to make these images very subjective, kind of hyper-real, or surreal, or a kind of heightened activity or performance. That’s kind of how cinema plays into it a bit. It’s an exaggeration, a stylized way of looking at something.”

Interview:

http://photographyinterviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/barry-underwood-metamorphoses.html

Gallery Representation:

http://johanssonprojects.com/default.htm

Artist Site:

http://www.barryunderwood.com/