Barry Hazard
Region: Northeast
City / State: Brooklyn, NY
I make sculpted landscape paintings that project from the wall, like open dioramas. The subjects are derived from landscape archetypes of beauty, such as mountains, forests, deserts, sunsets, rivers, and bodies of water. I recognize the common and collective love for these subjects as spaces for reflecting, contemplation, and surrendering to something larger and more timeless than us. I also see conflicts, and our ecological footprint in these landscapes, whether perceived or actual. The conflict can be specific, or unspecific, and imply environmental, political, cultural, or historical issues. Sometimes it is a blatant problem like a melting glacier, other times it is more of a subtle inference that affects my perception of the space. The process of creating my pictures is much about the mitigation of these conflicted subjects, real or contrived, while trying to reimagine beauty.