Brian Barr

Brian Barr is an artist and independent curator from Detroit, currently based in Richmond, Virginia where he is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. He holds an MFA from American University and a BFA from the College for Creative Studies. Barr has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell, the Kala Art Institute, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and completed a residency at the Luminary Center for the Arts in St. Louis. He currently serves on the city of Richmond’s Public Art Commission.

Barr frequently collaborates with his wife, artist Lauren Rice. Together, their work has been exhibited at Vox Populi (Philadelphia), Flashpoint Gallery (Washington, DC), Purdue University, Current Space (Baltimore), the Neon Heater (Findlay, OH), Artist Alliance Inc.’s Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space (New York), and Alabama Contemporary (Mobile, AL). His solo exhibitions include Popps Packing (Detroit), Skylab (Columbus, OH), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (VA). His work was featured in New American Paintings No. 95.

Prior to relocating to Richmond, Barr founded and directed PASSENGER, a nomadic Center for Contemporary Art in Detroit. As a curator, he has organized exhibitions at PASSENGER, ORG Gallery (Detroit), Purdue University, the Museum of New Art Detroit, Delicious Spectacle (DC), and the Katzen Art Center Museum (DC).

As Executive Director of PASSENGER, Barr forged partnerships across the public and private sectors. He worked with Mayor Michael Duggan’s office to curate local artists into the mayor’s residence and municipal offices. He also collaborated with Dan Gilbert (Founder of Rocket Mortgage) and Rock Ventures to activate vacant downtown properties through public events and art exhibitions. Under his leadership, PASSENGER received a grant from the Knight Foundation to support community programming in Rock Ventures spaces. This initiative contributed to the revitalization of a formerly vacant business corridor—now a thriving commercial, arts, and entertainment district.

Instagram: @brian__barr

Take the Mantel 

My work explores the relationship between function, meaning, and aesthetics through imagery and objects. By presenting large-scale imagery as found objects and installing them on a framework of pipe, drywall, and metal studs, I create a dialogue between the works and their surroundings. This setup allows the images to interact with one another and disrupt the exhibition space itself. Viewers encounter these images without their original context, prompting them to engage in two ways: they can search for meaning in this new environment or focus on the aesthetic qualities of the images. Either approach involves a certain loss of understanding, yet viewers may shift between the two, experiencing the tension between meaning and aesthetics. I am interested in this in-between space where meaning is unstable and new possibilities for understanding can emerge.