Portal VII Painting

Barbara Darmstadt is an American oil painter whose career began in the 1970s. Growing up in Plainfield, New Jersey, she began painting and selling her work at the age of 12. She graduated from Douglass College with degrees in Fine Arts and Psychology. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she studied with faculty influenced by Hans Hofman of the Art Students League. In her undergraduate years, she was involved in the Fluxus movement, and her conceptual art was influenced by the feminist revolution of that period. She later obtained a Masters in Anthropology and a Masters in Fine Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts. Darmstadt worked for over a decade in Refugee Affairs at the state and federal level before leaving to pursue her passion for art. She has worked in a number of mediums including Oil, Watercolor, Acrylic and Installation. Her large-scale oil works are rooted in post-expressionism and in later works of Anselm Kiefer.