Kathy Barry
B. 1969
Artist Biography
Kathy Barry is a visual artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Barry holds a Master of Fine Arts with Honours, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Te Waka Tūhura Elam School of Fine Arts, Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Art History from Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka.
In 2024 her work was included in the major international group show Duty of Care at IMA/Institute of Modern Art in Meanjin Brisbane, curated by Stephanie Berlangieri, Robert Leonard, and Angela Goddard. Her first substantial survey exhibition, Energy Work (2022), with Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, was curated by Christina Barton for Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery. Kathy’s work was represented in INCERTEZA VIVA (2016), the 32nd São Paolo Bienal, curated by Danish curator and writer, Lars Bang Larson, who also included her work in Believe Not Every Spirit, But Try the Spirit (2015) at MUMA/Monash University Museum Art in Melbourne. She staged Homeworld (2014), a two-person exhibition with Isobel Thom, at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, after completing an artist residency at Parehuia McCahon House followed by a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in the USA in 2012. In 2023 she was selected by a private panel to receive the prestigious C Art Trust Award (https://carttrust.nz/).
Barry’s artworks are held in numerous public and private collections, including Ngā Puhipuhi o Te Herenga Waka Art Collection; The Koopman Collection at the National Library of the Netherlands; Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries; The University of Auckland Art Collection; Wellington City Council Art Collection; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; The Arts House Trust; and The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū.
Solo Exhibitions
- Erasing code worlds, 2019
- Transmission, 2017
- Space Echo, 2015
- Tickets to the paper world, 2013
- Porch light, 2010
Group Exhibitions
- Wrapped, 2023
- You won’t believe your eyes…a visual miscellany, 2023
- About time, 2021
- A nod to nature, 2020