Flatrock, 2009
Acrylic on canvas
240 x 180 cm

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.

  • Selected exhibition history
  • Permanent collections
  • Projects
  • Editions
  • Publications
  • Recent news

2011GROUP Freehand: Recent Australia Drawing, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia

2010GROUP Feminism Never Happened, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

GROUP Wilderness: Balnaves Contemporary Painting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

GROUP Roundabout, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

2008GROUP neo goth: back in black, University of Queensland Art Museum, Australia

GROUP Optimism, Gallery of Modern Art—Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

2007SOLO Del Kathryn Barton, Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest, Sydney, Australia

GROUP The Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

2003GROUP Octopus 4: more real than life, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia

2002GROUP Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Centre, Buffalo, USA

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Art and Australia, Sydney, Australia

Artbank, Sydney, Australia

BHP Billiton Collection, Melbourne, Australia

Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia

The Flinders Collection, Melbourne, Australia

The Acacia Collection, Melbourne, Australia

The International School of Tourism, Australia

The University of Sydney Union Collection, Sydney, Australia

The Students Association, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney

UBS, Sydney, Australia