Barry Gross, 1948 | Portrait / Surrealist painter

In art historical terms, the early works of Barry Gross, American painter, combine the hyperfocus of Surrealism with Renaissance spirituality and humanism.

It is then all set to motion with the dynamism and drama of Baroque.

Dali and Fra Angelico join forces with Bernini.

His paintings reveal to the viewer something deeply felt, yet only vaguely remembered.

This dichotomy of reality and fantasy is matched in other works in which his protagonists are captured in a never-never land between sleep and awakening or caught between the depths of the ocean and the limits of outer space.

His current works explore the theme of isolation and loneliness.

The pathos of detachment from those around us strikes a chord all too familiar in our growing encapsulation of the individual.

We are so often connected electronically, yet separated by technology from personal, tactile interaction.

Barry’s works are studies in contrast between reality and fiction, between traditions present and past, and between this world and the next.

They are caught, as are we, in the reality of the present while we await the unknowns of tomorrow.