Eveningwear By Glenn Barr (All Photos By Gail)

Jonathan LeVine Gallery is currently hosting Invisible World, a series of new works by Detroit-based artist Glenn Barr. Although his work has appeared previously in group shows, this is Barr’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery. It was worth waiting for.

Left: Eye Witness, Right: Hunger Cabin

In compositions on paper and wood Barr gives life to surreal creatures, specters and lonesome characters that live in a stark world, drenched in the grit and haze of a post-apocalyptic urban dreamscape. Drawing inspiration from pop and counterculture sources, such as pulp art and cartoons, he presents alternate yet interconnected realities that invite viewers to examine otherworldly narratives.

Tomorrow’s Child

For Invisible World, Barr presents a universe of private intrigue where pink-haired waifs and haunted astronauts are suited up for the unknown.

Left: Ransom, Right: Monday Remembered

He also brings us back to earth and into private moments where anti-heroines are trapped in telephone conversations filled with either rage, horror or quiet despair.

Premonition

The artist elaborates, “Fiction; written on the page or visualized on celluloid, there has always been a narrative that exists parallel to our own. A counter culture. An invisible world. In keeping with this aesthetic, I’m exploiting voyeuristically a vision of life’s emotionally charged moments or its banality. I want to illuminate the problematic cracks in the human condition reflected in fringe urban settings or even in outer space.

Left: The Spell, Right: Wrecked

“These paintings to me have a subtle emotional punch that reference the lonely solitude of life’s cruel existence and yet their plots seem unknown and open ended. But no matter what the underlying cryptic woes, I will sometimes just revel in the simple beauty and emotion of the human face.”

Glenn Barr’s Invisible World will be on Exhibit Through November 12th, 2016 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Located at 529 East 20th Street, 9th Floor, in the Chelsea Gallery District.

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