Sara Barker: CHANGE-THE-SETTING

This exhibition by Glasgow-based artist Sara Barker (born in Manchester in 1980) presents two sequences of new work made specially for The Fruitmarket Gallery together with a small number of existing works.

Sara Barker works on the boundary between sculpture, painting and drawing. Since beginning to exhibit her work in 2004, she has developed a visual language of paint, steel, aluminium, brass and glass; and a way of working which is meditative, focusing on memory, individual perception, and a blurring of line and colour.

With its combination of new and existing work, this exhibition offers the opportunity to spend time learning the language of Barker’s art, enjoying how her objects change in relation both to you and to each other as you walk around and among them.

The exhibition is called CHANGE-THE-SETTING. This title is meant to function like a stage direction, invoking a situation in which one element can be changed to allow the others to recombine in a different way.


New monograph
We are delighted to publish a new monograph which charts the development of Sara Barker’s visual language from its earliest beginnings. The book includes new writing from curator and writer Katharine Stout and Novelist Ali Smith. Available to buy here.

Exhibition and publication produced in collaboration with IKON, Birmingham.


Events

Artist’s talk: Sara Barker
Wednesday, March 16, 6:30–7:30pm 
Sara Barker will be in conversation with Fiona Bradley, Director of The Fruitmarket Gallery.

Panel discussion: “I am writing for myself and strangers*: writing, sculpture, and the work of Sara Barker”
Wednesday, May 4, 6–8pm 
Art historians Kirstie Gregory (Henry Moore Institute), Sarah Victoria Turner (Paul Mellon Centre) and curator and writer Katharine Stout (ICA, London) consider the relationship between writing and sculpture, including art historical research, interviews with artists, and writing as a tool for sculpture.  

*Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans