Barry Gordon

I knew at an early age (5 years old) that I wanted to be an artist. Since then I’ve been painting, doing artwork and living with art. My first professional exhibition was in 1965. In 1985 I opened the Gordon Gallery in Santa Monica. In 1994 I had a 30-year retrospective. I am an “outsider” and have not been overly influenced by the formal teachings of art institutions.

My work features social satire or political commentary, seen through a surrealist lens. Viewers see variant representations of music, biologic and organic forms, institutions and social relationships. I play with visual counterpoint in my art, among color, design, composition, space, optical abstraction and fantasy. Nature inspires me, and as a surrealist I include my own distinctive abstracted and altered versions of flowers, trees, birds and humans.

No matter how unique an artist’s image, it is a creation of a specific time, place and culture, and often reflects the work of earlier masters. My work reflects a blending of influences from the modern and the contemporary art scene. My work also reflects the freedom, light and multicultural qualities of California. These influences serve only as the foundation for the ideas expressed on my canvas.

In sum, I a...