Biography

Barry Wolfryd was born in Los Angeles, California in April 1952. He lives and works both in Mexico and the United States, producing innovative visual art based on a fusion of the two cultures in which he resides. Barry’s art & life work are about the absolute intensity of the two worlds he shares.

While “Growing Up Absurd” in New England, just off the Connecticut shore, Barry commenced his artistic experiments and journey. Other forms of art such as: Jazz, the progressive music of Frank Zappa and Andy Warhol’s Pop Art helped create a meaningful social-artistic fabric for his work. Barry’s art images weaved “social context” with “Dadaist metaphor” ~~~ always slightly twisting-the-truth with the lively verities of Frank Zappa culture (“Call any vegetable and the chances are good that the vegetable will respond to you”).

As a young adult in his twenties, Barry eventually moved from the United States to Mexico in order to continue his artistic ventures. It was during this first “awakening” in Mexico that Barry discovered there was another culture of cynicism (“Chingar o ser chingado”), as stated by Octavio Paz, which influenced his work deeply. ( To fuck or get fucked)

Meantime, 1985 was a crucial year in the development of Barry’s career; after moving to Mexico City from the East Coast of the United States --- Barry established his nascent New Jersey-Aztec Studio in the Bohemian neighborhood of Colonia Roma. It was while Barry was a newly transformed resident of Mexico City, living in this district, where he became an active player in the formation of the current contemporary art movement(s) in Mexico. Many of the emerging and established artists in Mexico City exhibited at Out Gallery, an avant-garde workspace and gallery project that Barry founded. Along with other cutting-edge and underground project spaces, such as La Quiñonera, Salon dés Aztecas, La Zona, Barry helped to create what is now one of the world’s most dynamic and flourishing art scenes.
Barry’s recent work demonstrates the “intensity” in which he likes to incorporate cultural artifacts-goods-idols which have displaced traditional religious icons and values within a “maturing” Mexico; Barry reveals how a “well-developed,” American GIANT inundates the cultural heart and consumer mind of Mexico. It is this “rub without polish” that fascinates Barry --- while he conjures imagination and repulsion regarding household brands and items that reflect an empty international idealism, lamenting the disappearing uniqueness and colorfulness of a particular country invaded by the aesthetics and frivolous mindset of HUGE multinational corporations.
John Mason Hart, noted Professor of History at the University of Houston, discusses Barry’s work in his book entitled: “Empire and Revolution (The Americans in Mexico Since the Civil War),” observes that Barry’s work reflects the cultural miscegenation that is so glaringly obvious today.
Barry’s ability to live in two cultures, this dual nature, his understanding of their symbols and icons gives him the visual tools to critique and look intently where he came from and where he lives. The painter’s ability to juxtapose pop art icons within the context of our post-9/11 world is an activist’s concern to challenge the social norms of both countries.