Kathy Barry's optical watercolour paintings of intersecting planes express a belief in the fundamental connectedness of all matter in the universe and re-evaluate our relationships to scientific and transcendental fields of energy. Her investigations into string theory and quantum physics open up multiple dimensions and infinite worlds, each as complex as the other. These fields of frequencies are depicted through geometric abstraction and all held in place through a gridded picture plane.

Barry explains: “The grid is envisioned as a latent energy field; a quantum unified field that is the intelligent universe. From this field, modifications of energy materialise; joining with other frequencies and energies, they merge and break apart, morphing into vortexes or portals to higher frequencies.”

Kathy Barry (born 1969, Christchurch) graduated with a Master of Fine Arts, Honours, from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, 2004 and a Post-Graduate Diploma, Victoria University, 2001. In 2012 Barry was the McCahon House Artist-in-Residence, and that same year the Artist-in-Residence at the Vermont Studio Center, USA. In 2016 Barry participated in the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo and in 2015 her works were exhibited at MUMA/Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne and Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland. Barry has taught at Elam, Unitec and Massey University’s College of Creative Arts. Barry’s work is held nationally and internationally, and she lives and works in Wellington.