* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Shawn Barber’s body of work focuses primarily on painting and illustration. He received his BFA in 1999 from the Ringling School of Art & Design, in Sarasota, FL. His paintings and illustrations have been exhibited in diverse solo and group venues including: The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, CA; CPop Gallery, Detroit, MI; Cowboys and Angels Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, NY; Strychnin Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Gallery 1988, Hollywood, CA; Miami Art Lab, Coral Gables, Fl; The Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; The Green Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; The Society of Illustrators, NY, NY; The Selby Gallery, Ringling, Sarasota, FL ; The 1300 Gallery, Cleveland, OH. Shawn’s work is in collections worldwide, including those of Mat Hoffman, Van Morrison, Christian Slater and Rolling Stone magazine’s founder Jan Wenner.
"Shawn Barber turns the politics of power upside down with a virtuoso and lavish oil painting style. For centuries this technique has been reserved for nobility and the wealthy. Even today, we see politicians, doctors and corporate donors commemorated in the oil painting portrait. Through Barber's eyes and brushwork we are shown a world that many of us were told was unsafe and at best uncouth- the tattoo culture. He shows us the nobility and the beauty of those people, as well as the power of that world and the tools of that trade with such skill that we must stop and seriously consider what we are seeing because someone with great talent has taken the time to glorify and signify that world in a work of art."
"I've also know Shawn for awhile, and have watched his work transform and evolve over the years. He is another fearless ballsy painter that will try anything to help him the ideas that are in his head out onto a canvas. He is also a huge inspiration in how awesome his work ethic is as well as how humble he is."