Kathy Barber's paintings are palimpsests. Canvases are built gradually through multiple layers of transparent glazes. Their contents altered, effaced, reimagined so that the origin of the work – be it a place, a memory, a thought – remains only in traces, visible in the margins, like a shadow – an echo. 

Over time, Barber has developed a distinctive suite of gestural marks and calligraphic-like forms. The artist describes her process: ‘My mark making originated in writings, repeated words became letters, became abstracted forms. Entwined with colour and light, these form a narrative, an unspoken language that resides in the fibres of the painting.’

Kathy Barber has regularly exhibited in New Zealand since 2000, and is represented in private collections throughout New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne and London. She was a Merit Award winner in the 2018 Parkin Drawing award, and has been a finalist in national art awards including the Wallace Awards, the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards, Walker and Hall Awards, and the winner of the Craigs Investment Partners Award at the Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards.

Born in 1965, Kathy Barber lives and works in Auckland.

available works