Mark Barry’s paintings are lovingly rendered in the artist’s signature, faux-naive style. His many themes include jazz musicians at play (he often listens to jazz as he paints) and jubilant family gatherings at the artist’s Maryland home. His most recent show at Steven Scott Gallery in 1999 included images of playtime with the artist’s daughter and his dog as well as intimate moments with his wife, Sandy.

Mark Barry was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1955. He received his B.F.A. from the Swain School of Design (now University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth) in 1981 and studied on the graduate level at Brooklyn College and Johns Hopkins University. He has been exhibiting his oil paintings, painted ceramics, and etchings since 1981 in New York, Maryland, Kentucky, Colorado and Oregon. His work is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Baltimore Sun and numerous corporate and private collections.

"Barry’s greatest gift is the happiness with which he endows his images. This is not a mindless, silly happiness, but springs from a deep appreciation of life. Whatever Barry’s people do - cook soft crabs, play with the dog, read quietly, have a night out, kiss one another, take a bath - Barry has them do it with a loving sense of the gift of time.”

Excerpted from “Lively works bursting with joyfulness”, John Dorsey, art critic, The Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1998.