Acclaimed Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton (1972)– two-time winner of the Archibald Prize, the most prestigious portraiture prize in Australia– has a solo show opening in October at New York’s Albertz Benda gallery. Del Kathryn Barton: the more than human world runs October 30th through December 13th and features two new bronze sculptures and a series of new paintings celebrating the dynamic, raw, and evolving energy of the divine feminine. Albertz Benda is the only gallery representing Barton in the states, so this is an uncommon opportunity for Americans to experience her work in person, without a transatlantic flight.
Known for her quirky, mutable, magically unconventional depictions of people and animals, often in surrealistic dreamscapes, Barton creates otherworldly environments using sequins, markers, gouache, and glitter. Drawing on folktales, personal mythology, and cosmic imagery, she creates stunning, sensual tableaux. Sometimes, her figures grow petals or sinuously emerge from a knot of intricately patterned snakes, while surrounded by stars. The people in her fantastical environments often have elongated limbs, exaggerated features, towering pompadours, and intricate jewelry, giving them a sci-fi rococo fairytale feel.
A multi-media artist, Barton paints, draws, collages, sculpts, and works in film. Her animated film, Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose, won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film in 2015. Her directorial debut, Blaze, co-written with Huna Amweero, won Best Feature Film - Original at the 2022 AWGIE Awards and the 2023 Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Barton often investigates femininity, love, spirituality, unity, and aging, and Art & Object got to speak with the artist about her craft.
