Born in 1970 in Cortland, USA, fascinated by the tattoo world at a time when it is still unknown to the general public, Shawn Barber decided in 2006 to celebrate it by creating portraits for tattoo artists he respects for their integrity and full devotion to this art – these figures still being referents in their scope of action. The artist compiled an invaluable documentation of the contemporary history of this discipline, also enlarging his objective by sanctifying the lives of the tattoo artists he paints.
Thus, the tattoo machine, the tattoo session and the shop also become subjects. His works, executed in oil painting, are close to the realism of a photographic illusion, nevertheless offset by expressionist touches or upset by a complex set of runs. In a similar vein to the Italian Futurist movement of the early 20th century, which sought to suggest speed by breaking down the movement on the canvas, the works of Shawn Barber explore the idea of defining the dynamic of a particular moment. A palette of fawn colors come to set his vocabulary, and highlights at the same time the flamboyance of the characters he portrays.
His specific technique will be improved over the years, having graduated in 1999 from the Ridling College of Art in Sarasota, Florida. The virtuosity of his style opened him since the doors of private collections all around the world, from the United States to Australia, through Canada, Europe or Asia. Shawn Barber has also initiated the practice of tattooing in 2006 with Mike Davis in his Everlasting Tattoo shop in San Francisco, before opening in 2009 with his partner Kim Saigh, his own studio the Memoir Tattoo in Los Angeles, while continuing to paint and exhibit worldwide. The catalog of his works, entitled Memoir: The Tattooed Portraits Series and published by Last Gasp Books in July 2012 was praised by the international tattoo community. He made the cover of No. 18 of the outsider pop art magazine HEY! modern art and pop culture created by Anne & Julien; his paintings are currently exhibited in the exhibition HEY! modern art & pop culture – Part III at the musée de la Halle Saint Pierre (Paris) from October 2015 to March 2016, in which Anne & Julien are the curators.