UTICA, NY — Shawn Barber, founder of the shop Memoir in Los Angeles, will appear at Mohawk Valley Community College on September 12th. The college will host the artist for “Painting Tattoos,” the latest event in their Artist Talk series.
Barber was a painter before he took up ink. He was born in Cortland, and graduated from Cazenovia College in 1997 before completing his bachelor’s at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Early on in his career, Barber made a name for himself documenting the creations and innovations of contemporary tattoo artists– his ongoing “Tattooed Portraits Series” has been shown internationally.
The pieces are celebrated for the dreamlike quality with which tatted subjects are rendered– dissolving into backgrounds and one another. Barber works in oils, but digital renderings give the impression of smoke over watercolors. In Checker Demon Cab Ride from Stuttgart to London, (with Luke, Filip, Titine, Tino, and Sue),heady hazes vignette a found family out for a drive, windows sealed. Portrait of the Artist, Bill Salmon, 5 views is frankly psychedelic, while the prismatic perspective is employed inPortrait of the Artist, Shige (Shigenori Iwasaki), 9 views to imagine an army of one man.
After years of studying tattoos on his canvases, Barber tried his hand on skin in 2006. Along with his partner Kim Saigh (of “LA Ink” fame), Shawn Barber opened Memoir Tattoo in 2009. On their website, they say “[the shop]has always been a painting studio and creative space for our resident and guest artists.” Memoir has done creative work for Jeep and Adidas in addition to hosting gallery shows. As a solo artist, Barber has had an extensive commercial career himself: his clients includeTheNew Yorker and Atlantic Records in addition to Nike, Target, and Google.
You can find tickets to his Artist Talkhere.Members of the public pay $5, MVCC employees pay $2, and the school’s students can attend for free.
