Mark Barker, Untitled (2021). Stoneware. 34 x 28 x 15.5 cm. Courtesy Zarinbal Khoshbakht.
Mark Barker, Untitled (2021). Stoneware, gesso, beeswax. 62 x 29 x 39 cm. Courtesy Zarinbal Khoshbakht.
Mark Barker, Untitled (2021). Stoneware, slip. 50.5 x 28 x 30 cm. Courtesy Zarinbal Khoshbakht.
Mark Barker is a British artist now based in Berlin. His current exhibition with Zarinbal Khoshbakht in Cologne, running until 7 August 2021, is exquisite.
Biomorphic forms conflate with more explicitly figurative elements, revealing expressive gestures that ache with the burden of emotion.
Each surface of stoneware or clay sculpture bristles with energy through its imperfections and variations of tone, whether decaying or alive, the skin is tactile and these figures haunt us like intimate memories.
Main image: Mark Barker, Untitled (2021). Stoneware, gesso, beeswax. 62 x 29 x 39 cm. Courtesy Zarinbal Khoshbakht.
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