Meet Andre Barker | Figurative painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andre Barker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andre, how do you think about risk?
I think risk taking is an important part of evolving as an artist and realizing what you want your art to communicate. For me, I only started painting recently and took a risk jumping into a new medium. I was scared that I might fail or waste time trying to learn a new skill but if I never started I would not have known how much I enjoy painting!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My work is about showing the black experience through the contemporary lens of Afro surrealism to show the poetic weirdness of that experience and how uncanny it can be a times. One thing that I find interesting about a lot of black creatives is that we are all talking about the same thing. For me, that is both good and bad because it shows that there is always a cycle that is happening in America when it comes to black people and our experience in this white society. But, it is good because we are speaking about that narrative and telling our story. One of the hardest things that I had to overcome was trying to figure out how I wanted to represent this experience in my work in a way that “set me a part from others”. I had a lot of experience drawing and wanted to try something different when I went into grad school. This was a huge challenge for me because I never took painting seriously and never painted figures. So it was a lot of long stressful and lonely days in the studio trying to figure out how I wanted to represent black people and I decided to pull inspiration from the old Masters like Caravaggio. This is when I decided to really focus on light and shadow and figure out a way to allow black and brown skin to glow in my paintings. I also decided to use symbolism to talk about difficult subjects without hitting people over the head with the message.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
To be honest, I don’t really go out too much. A lot of my time is spent dealing with classes, working in the studio to produce more work and finish up old projects, and working. But, I think that I would just go sightseeing with them because there is a lot of places that I would love to visit but I have not had the time to. And of course, I would love to take them to the museum so we can stare at art for 4 hours!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I think the main person that deserves a shout out is my professor Margi Weir. She was one of the few people at Wayne State University who I worked with and encouraged me to continue to create. She also allow me to explore different topics in the “Independent Projects” class. Plus, she is the person that told me that a gallery/museum is a space for people to have tough conversations and that inspired me to want to make work that features Black people and the Black experience.

Website: www.aloartwork.com

Instagram: andrebarkerart