Liam Barr

Liam was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1966, emigrated in 1974 growing up Lyttelton, Banks Peninsula. At 20, he travelled extensively overseas and found himself settling in Perth WA. Over the next 14 years he worked as a graphic designer/illustrator turned painter before settling back in New Zealand as a full time painter.

His current work reveals a contemporisation of the tiki, where it appears as an exaggerated sculptural figure, anachronistically placed in both poignant and revealing situations set against dynamic and moody New Zealand landscapes. His work conveys a narrative, where irony, satire and playfulness are used to magnify and perhaps draw a long bow to the duality of cultures. Embedded within is a light and humorous perversion of kiwiana complete with all its paradoxes where European icons merge congruously with traditional culture.

Liam has had two solo exhibitions and is working on another to be held at the Warwick Henderson Gallery in Sept. 08. His work has appeared in a public exhibition - ‘Tears For Tane’s Children’ at the Whangarei Art Museum.