For over 20 years, Peter Barrickman has let imagination and invention guide his work. Barrickman’s stacked and layered compositions negotiate the picture plane with idiosyncratic maneuvering. Although his work has fun with art history by reconfiguring past concepts of abstraction and figuration, these playful drawings and paintings also suggest open-ended and associative narratives. As Barrickman’s work invites the viewer to wander through his loosely formed geometry and fields of color, we encounter figures and characters that equally collapse and anchor his unique compositions.

Peter Barrickman was born in 1971 and lives in Milwaukee, WI. He received his MFA in painting from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2007) and his BFA in film from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, WI (2002).

He has mounted solo exhibitions at The Green Gallery in Milwaukee, WI (2022); Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York (2019); and 47 Canal Street in New York City, NY (2011).

The artist’s work has been featured in group exhibitions such as Won’t You Be My Neighbor at Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York City, NY (2020); Wie Farbe Gesellschaft Verdaut at Fluc in Vienna, Austria (2020); Whitney Biennial (with artist John Riepenhoff) at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, NY (2017); American Genre: Contemporary Painting, curated by Michelle Grabner, at the ICA at Maine College of Art in Portland, ME (2017); and Water and Dreams, curated by Katy Cowan, at Chicken Coop Contemporary in Portland, OR (2017) among others.

Barrickman’s work has been written about in numerous publications, including The Shepherd Express (2018), Artnews.com (2017), ArtForum (2016), The New York Times (2014), and Art in America (2011).