Barber to Serve as 2021 Island Press Artist Research Fellow

Barber will work in residence June 21-25, 2021, as the Island Press Artist Research Fellows. His original residency, which had been scheduled for June 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Barber uses interdisciplinary art practices to articulate various testimonies within and surrounding Black America. He notes: “It was not until moving to the South that I learned I grew up in the Midwest. Even into my twenties, I thought I resided on the East Coast. I would later, jokingly, blame my confusion on Detroit’s being in the Eastern Standard Time zone. However, I also attribute this misplaced-ness to Detroit’s negligent public school system. When I look back on my upbringing, I must acknowledge having been subjected to a public system constructed to encourage disregard for self, deferred dreams, and harm bodies. It is equally essential to recognize that the brilliance of Black American’s culture kept that system from destroying me. In her book, Art on My Mind, bell hooks writes, ‘if one could make a people lose touch with their capacity to create…then the work of subjugation [is complete].’ Heeding this warning, I am motivated to create art as an act of resistance. In both practice and concept, I contribute to the massive equitable evolution currently taking shape in America and worldwide. Selected professional recognitions from such efforts include a nomination for the Joan Mitchell Foundation award and presently a candidate for the 2022 United States Artists Fellowship.”

Other recent awards include a 2019 MAP Fund grant, a Fontenelle Forest Fellowship, The Union for Contemporary Art Fellowship, a Stanley Award grant from the University of Iowa, and the Alonzo Davis Award from Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Selected exhibitions include Fontenelle Forest (Omaha, NE), Englert Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Museum of Science (Chicago), Public Artwork on Atlanta BeltLine (Atlanta, GA), Rialto Theatre (Atlanta, GA), C4 Atlanta (Atlanta, GA), Lexington Theatre (Kentucky), Mason Murer Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Gallery 4731 (Detroit, MI), and Levitt Gallery (Iowa City). Barber graduated cum laude from the MFA program at the University of Iowa in 2016.