Sara Barker’s skeletal wall constructions, freestanding, and tabletop sculptures occupy the interstices between painting and sculpture, opening a space between abstraction and representation. Barker’s works articulate painting as a space to be inhabited, thus the titles of her works often draw from the tradition of modernist poetry and literature.
Solo exhibitions include Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; and BALTIC, Gateshead. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Tate St Ives, Cornwall; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Saatchi Gallery, London; Tate Liverpool, Liverpool; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow; and Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen.
Selected Works
Sara Barker
Apertures of eyes and mouths, 2016
Aluminium tray, steel rod, automotive paint, mirrored steel
150 × 100 × 32 cm
Sara Barker
Chequered passing-pin, 2013
Aluminium sheet, steel rod, various paints, brass, bolts, black board
133 × 118 × 39 cm
Sara Barker
Flowering of the rod, 2011
Aluminium, steel, gouache, waterbased oil paint, chain
210 × 106 × 120 cm
Sara Barker
limited body, 2013
Steel bar, aluminium sheet, various paints, bolts
242 × 84 × 61 cm
Sara Barker
Unfolding Arms Behind My Back, 2009
Cement, clay, woodfiller, acrylic paint, plywood, mahogany
118 × 220 × 79 cm
Sara Barker
Seascape proposal, 2012
Steel rod, aluminium sheet, acrylic paint, gouache, metal filler
96 × 59 × 72 cm
Sara Barker
Saturnine night, 2018
Steel rod, aluminium sheet, automotive paint, perspex
72 × 74 × 22
Sara Barker
Cloud darker than cast doubt, 2016
Aluminium tray, steel rod, automotive paint, mirrored steel
117 × 103 × 25 cm
Sara Barker
Mordent Matter, 2016
Aluminium tray, steel rod, automotive paint, mirrored steel
91 × 83,5 × 19,5 cm
