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David Alexander Barnett

Artist
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David Alexander Barnett

Painter - Artist

David Barnett (b. 1988, Atlanta) is a painter whose work explores intuitive expression through unplanned compositions evolving over time. Drawing on the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse, he begins with simple marks and limited colors, allowing figures, shapes, and textures to emerge unpredictably. The resulting paintings are playful, emotional, and ineffable.

In 2012, Barnett apprenticed with an outdoor mural company in Brooklyn, painting large-scale advertisements and murals, including a twenty-story portrait of the Pope near Madison Square Garden.

His focus had been on the techniques of representational painting, looking to Sargent, Klimt and Bonnard for inspiration. But by 2016, after leaving NYC and commercial murals, Barnett’s focus shifted toward nature and consciousness. Living the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in the Upper Delaware River Region, his art making shifted in part because of the new beautiful surroundings, but primarily because of the new research on psychedelics, Hilma af Klimt’s show at the Guggenheim, and the Tic-Tac UFO reported in the New York Times. With a new ontological framework, Barnett’s art expanded toward intuitive abstraction, where his own idiosyncratic techniques are developed by paying attention to the feelings in the subtle body.

EDUCATION

 

University of Tennessee at Knoxville                                                                                               2010 – 2011

B.A. in History

Reed College, Portland, Oregon                                                                                               2007 – 2009


Exhibitions

Art in the Parlor, Narrowsburg, NY February 2025

The White Show, Chester’s Art Studio, Barryville NY December 2024

A group show

Cincinnati Art Club’s ViewPoint 54 Exhibition, Eisele Gallery Sept 9 - Oct 1 2022

National Juried Group Show

Rising and Falling All Day Long, Harley, Woodloch Lodge March 2022

A duo show, exploring new directions

Continuity and Change, Hawley, Woodloch Lodge August 2020

A duo show, featuring my new works of animals and flowers

Home, Narrowsburg, DVAA Gallery                                                                                         October 2018

A solo show featuring portraits, landscapes, and interior and garden scenes

Moments, Callicoon, River Family Wellness Center                                                               May 2018

A duo show with local artist Thomas Bosket

Continue, Callicoon, Café Adella Dori                                                                                    May 2016-2019

Every couple months, I hang new painting in my sister’s cafe 

Group Show, Callicoon, Eva Gallery                                                                                       June 2016

A group show with local artists from the Upper Delaware Region

Atmospheric, Lower East Side, Con Artist Collective                                                            October 2015

A group show with members of the collective


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Freelance Muralist 2015-Present

Working with private and corporate clients to design unique outdoor and indoor murals

Scenic Art Studios, Newburgh, New York                                                                  February 2018 – May 2018

Scenic Painting Studio – Scenic Painter                                                       

Cobalt Studios, White Lake, New York                                                                       August 2016 – November 2016

Scenic Painting Studio - Freelance painter

Art-FX Murals, New York City & Los Angeles                                                             March 2015 – March 2016

Hand Painted Advertising – Painter

Milestone Outdoor, New York City                                                                  February 2015 – January 2017

Hand Painted Advertising  - Lead Painter

Colossal Media, New York City                                                                                     2012 – February 2015

Hand Painted Advertising Company -  Painter


PUBLICATIONS

 

Cover Feature, The Saint Ann’s Review, Journal of Contemporary Arts and Letters, New York         Fall 2015


barnett.a.david@gmail.com |  (917) 960-6547