Grant Barnhart

Seattle, WA

Posted: 5.25.07

More info: Artist site

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About Grant:

Grant Barnhart’s compositions layer graphite and oil on panel. For this body of work, Barnhart chose to emphasize his graphite renderings, which are the most designed element of the work. Paint is used to offset the rigid structure of the drawings, adding a loose organic quality to the work.

Barnhart amasses fragments of history and myth, reconstructing them into complex narratives that exploit the thin line between the two. This chaotic melding of historic and mythical imagery results in startling new relationships and connections that begin to mirror our own saturated media environment. Barnhart’s compositions place particular emphasis on the absurdity of war and our obsession with technology.

Throughout these compositions larger than life gods and monsters battle soldiers without resolution. In Barnhart’s work even Gods are vulnerable suggesting the fragility of our own belief systems as well as our passive acceptance of wars both real and imagined.

Barnhart chose to frame his current body of work in a style that mimics film’s wide screen format. For Barnhart this is a deliberate device meant to satirize our obsession with entertainment and the escapism it provides. It is also meant to represent how the western world mainly confronts war from the distant safety of their couches. Barnhart also felt that it was particularly fitting for his first show in Hollywood, the global capital of entertainment.

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