Irene Barberis

Irene Barberis is an Australian/ British artist based in Melbourne and London. She is a painter primarily, working also with installation, drawing, and new media art. She is also the founding director of an international Arts Research Centre, and is an international curator and writer.

Life

Barberis was born in Chiswick, England, in 1953 and moved to Australia in 1956. She grew up in rural Victoria and began studying classical ballet at the age of three, giving it up after an injury at age nineteen. Barberis became the partner of Australian Artist Robert Hunter in 1973 - 1977, travelling with him to New York for his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and to multiple galleries in the UK and Europe thereafter. On return from this overseas journey at age 22 she completed her BFA at Preston Institute with friends, peers and lecturers including Peter Booth, Dale Hickey, Dominico De Clario. De Clario included her in her first group exhibition in 1976, 'Drawing Some Definitions'at the then George Paton Gallery, Melbourne University. She completed a Post Graduate Diploma of Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. On receiving the 1979 Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Fellowship from the VCA, Barberis travelled to Paris in late 1979 after receiving an Australia Council Grant and receiving the Australian Power Studio at the Cite des Arts, Paris. She lived, made work and exhibited at the Cite des Arts Paris from 1980, returning to Australia in late 1982. She married Australian sculptor Adrian L. Page in 1984 and in 1988 had their one child Rebekah Georgia Page. She completed an MFA at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University in 1994 and a PhD on "Abstract and Figurative Elements of the Apocalypse and its Representations" in 2000 . She is a Senior lecturer at the RMIT University School of Art and lectures in painting in the off shore School of Art program in Hong Kong, at the Hong Kong Art School. She is the Founder and Director of the Global Centre for Drawing, Director of Metasenta Publications and is Co Director of Gallery Langford120 (with Wilma Tabacco), in Melbourne, Australia. Barberis has been the International Critic for the New York-based, 'Rome Art Program' for 5 Years and is Associated with the SACI Institute in Florence, Italy. Her husband, the late Sculptor Adrian.L.Page, passed away in 2010, and her one daughter Rebekah Georgia Page is engaged to Jackson Proud.

Metasenta

Barberis is the founding director of Metasenta an international arts research hub, supported by a number of universities including RMIT University in Melbourne and the University of the Arts, London. She has been director of its hubs and projects since this time. Her work with Metasenta has included initiating international art projects, exhibitions, publications and films. She founded and directed the mobile gallery, The DrawingSpace, Melbourne, an extension of her 2004 Public Arts Commission, A Kineaesthetic Experience: 10 Works which utilised dormant spaces around Frankston, Victoria. Metasenta is known for published and commissioned books. For example, Barberis, on behalf of Metasenta, commissioned a new survey of Australian drawing, Contemporary Australian Drawing #1.. Metasenta(R) continues to generate projects internationally and is the umbrella organisation for the Global Centre for Drawing, Metasenta International, Metasenta Publishing, Metaview and Metasenta Projects.

Barberis curated the large international survey exhibition "Across the Gulf; Bahrain Dubai and Abu Dhabi: 22 Artists" for the 2009 Arc Biennial Brisbane. Barberis has also concentrated on major drawing exhibitions including in 2010 Contemporary Australian Drawing#1, 35 Artists, RMIT Gallery, and Contemporary Australian Drawing #2, 84 Artists, University of the Arts London, Gallery Langford 120, 2012. She was international Chair of the Conference" Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East", which formed a dialogue through drawing at the beginning of the Arab Spring. Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East2 Conference was held in Dubai in September 2014 in which Barberis was the initiator and International Chair. Crossing the Line#3: Global Drawing: Intersections in Firenze was held at SACI Florence in 2015.Contemporary Australian Drawing #4 was held in September 2013 at the New York Studio School and included 94 Australian Artists; this project had seven iterations the final iteration at Gallery Langford120 in 2017. A number of Barberis' initiatives and philosophies on Drawing through the University systems, Galleries and Drawing Centres is documented in the June Issue of the Australian Journal, Imprint', 'The Good Drawing', University of the Arts London, 2012 and "The Drawn Word; even if I write my name I am drawing", 2014. Barberis has published the 'Metasenta Small Book Series', based on artist's experimental works, studio ideas, and projects, including small books by Stephen Farthing, Anita Taylor, Godwin Bradbeer and Warren Breninger.... Eight books have so far been printed in this series, with three books forthcoming. Two new international publications on the 'Tapestry of Light Project' and her upcoming residencies in the USA are forthcoming in 2019/20.

Work

Barberis has been making art since the mid 1970s, exhibiting internationally since 1980. She was invited by Sol LeWitt to draw his wall work at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1977. He became her mentor and they remained friends till his death in 2007. Her investigations into eschatological subject matter in one lineage of her work, culminated in the major artwork, "The Tapestry of Light: Intersections of Illumination" in 2017, which was exhibited at the Brussels Cathedral and at Canterbury Cathedral,UK in 2017. Over 14,500 visitors viewed the tapestry during it's six weeks at the Canterbury Cathedral Chapter House. The 'Tapestry of Light Project' opens at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. in July 2019. Barberis is one of the only female artists to complete a full cycle of the Apocalypse. Emerita Professor Michelle.P. Brown (University of London) is the International Curator of the Tapestry of Light Project. Professor David Mainwaring (Swinburne University) is the inventor of the Nano particle science in the Tapestry of Light's phosphorescent threads. Barberis has exhibited over 50 solo exhibitions in Australia and internationally, and participated in more than 100 group exhibitions. She takes up two prestigious residencies in the USA and Italy in 2019, with exhibitions and lectures in NY City and in Europe. She has exhibited internationally since the 1980s. In 2005, she initiated and was part of the exhibition "Intersections: Reading the Space" at the Jewish Museum of Australia, which was exhibited in 2005 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco. Other exhibitions include "Trancentric," London, 2008, "The Agency of Words" Lethaby Gallery, London, Text Festival 2009, Bury Museum and Art Gallery, Manchester, UK, "Apocalypse; Seven Histories into Futures", Arc Biennial 2009, Brisbane, Australia, 'Lines of Thinking, Langford120 in 2011, and Apocalypse/Revelation: Re Looking, 2012. Gallery Langford120 and Barberis' website have the full list of her exhibitions and projects, including her curatorial, published works, essays, images, CV and full biography.

External links

• Irene Barberis website
• Gallery website
• GCfD website
• Metasenta new website
• Irene Barberis homepage
• Metasenta