Barry Wolfryd, an artist who lives both in California and Mexico is producing innovative work based on a fusion of the two cultures he resides in. His work is about the intensity of the two worlds he shares.

In 1985 he moved to Mexico City and established his New Jersey – Aztec studio in the colonio Roma. During his residence in Mexico City he was an active player in the formation of the current Mexican contemporary art movement. Many of the current and established artists in the city exhibited at Out Gallery, a collaborative artist workspace and gallery project that Barry founded. Along with other avant-garde projects and spaces, Barry helped to create what is now one of the world’s most dynamic art scenes.

In a social artistic context, his work can be seen as a Dadaist metaphor; twisted by the Frank Zappa culture, (“Call any vegetable and the chances are good that the vegetable will respond to you”) in which he grew up and the culture of cynicism (“Chingar o ser chingado”), as stated by Octavio Paz that he lived in.

Like the Dadaist before him, Barry uses the ordinary and makes it the focus of attention. Various icons, symbols and everyday objects give him the visual tools necessary to reveal and critique all at the same time. He makes a severe and unrelenting assault on these two very different worlds.

The icons and objects in his work are part of a larger internalization. Unlike Pop Art of the 60’s that defined fine art through the use of everyday objects as art, his canvases become the narrative of ourselves in a crazy landscape, or urban setting, exposing what is evident and unpredictable.