Kyle Barnes

From Cookstown, Northern Ireland, Kyle Barnes graduated from The University of Ulster, Belfast, in 2010 with a BA Hons degree in Fine and Applied Arts. Since then he has won the Towry prize at the National Open Art Competition, exhibited at the prestigious Pallant House Gallery in Chicester and most recently been awarded the KPMG Young Artist Award at the RUA Belfast.

Barnes is interested in the process of painting, manipulating the material and working to its distinct qualities, while paying heed to differing textures in skin and how this is conveyed through tonal value and the temperature of colour.

He is inspired by our perception of, and our interaction with each other through visual identity. The combination of expression, eye contact, concealment, colour and texture makes for a varied involvement with each of his works.

“In many ways our face is a landscape. Years of experiences etch their mark on us physically as well as mentally, shaping who we are and moulding us as people. Our faces tell the story of how we live, our expression etched unto our face through the experiences we've had, the emotion in our eyes the result of the journey we've undertaken to bring us to the present.

Our skin is a timeline of our life style and choices. Through living life, we continually go through a process of cleansing and renewing from the dirt and grime that we pick up through 'life living' both physically and metaphorically. We experience, socialise, go to work, interact and from this activity we need to draw away, to help us make sense of our experiences, to help us grow and learn. It is the humanity of doing and drawing away, experiencing and learning, socialising and being alone, becoming physically dirty and cleansing that the work comments on. We are products of the people around us, our parents, the social experiences we have, the friendships, struggles and joys, the land itself. We're connected. These are connections which make us one and the same but yet unique as we grow and are shaped, pulled and pushed in many different ways to make us who we are at this present point in time.”