artist profile
Del Kathryn Barton
born
1972
lives and works
Sydney, Australia
education
BFA, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 1993
about the artist
Del Kathryn Barton’s rich pictures are an allover psychedelia of fanciful figuration charged with obsessive femininity and maternalistic undercurrents. Covering each canvas is a sum of meticulously painted layers where every bit bursts with nets, dots, vines, and other spirited patterns reminiscent of botanical diagrams and depictions of the cosmos. Deeply moved by her personal experiences of childbirth and motherhood, Barton’s objective is to capture life—its creation and its flourishing. The artist was honored in 2008 with the Archibald Prize, Australia’s most prestigious portraiture award presented by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She is widely recognized in many public and private Australian collections, and has exhibited in group shows, such as Optimism at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, and Roundabout, an international touring exhibition that opened at the City Gallery Wellington in New Zealand in 2010.