Barry Cleavin
The White Lotus Gallery is proud to present the works of
New Zealand artist Barry Cleavin.
Selected available works
"When I work on a plate, it is absolutely quiet. Everything outside this, involving the world, is full of noise. From this time of quietness, I give the world back its noise and sadness, and hope that by what I show, the world will take notice of its own behaviour. My feelings range between grief and joy... and I make images from this viewpoint. Mostly, I reduce the world to absurdity; in that form it is manageable."
-- Barry Cleavin
"The print as illustration, the print in combination with words, prints plentiful and accessible, images with a point of view, the print as agent of social commentary and opinion, the print in service of science, as descriptor, as definer."
These are the words used by T.L. Rodney Wilson, Director of Auckland Museum, when speaking of New Zealand printmaker, Barry
Cleavin. Cleavin draws on these many traditional uses of prints, but also transforms them to fulfill his reverence for life and dedication to make "the world notice its own
behaviour."
Michael Young, Director of Gippsland Art Gallery in Victoria, Australia, says of
Cleavin, "As a printmaker, he has used his highly developed skills. . . to produce sardonic reflections on absurd human activities."
Cleavin's images of the sad skeletal remains of extinct or endangered species, of eerie genetically modified landscapes, of comic if desperate geese scrabbling to face down Predators-these and others speak of his concern for the impact of human power and unconsciousness, and the vulnerability of life, including our own.
Copyright Restrictions : All images are provided for reference
only and may not be reproduced without permission.
