Kate Barry

Kate Barry (she/they) is an artist currently based on the the unceded, traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations in Vancouver, Canada. Barry specializes in performance art investigating queerness, subjectivity and embodied practice through painting, drawing and video. Barry’s art practice questions colonial constructions of gender and sexuality from a settler perspective . They are currently researching performance-painting, a technique that employs painting and live art, handmade paint brushes and other items to create abstractions on paper or canvas. This live art process is mediated through video, and/or video projection as a way to expand and play with notions of time and space.

Barry has contributed 25+ years to working in artist-run spaces committed to the exhibition of artwork outside the mainstream. She has performed and exhibited in galleries and festivals throughout Canada and internationally, including the National Gallery of Canada, Live Art Ireland, Vancouver Art Gallery, Open Space (Victoria), 7a*11d Festival of Performance Art (Toronto), World Pride Toronto, and the Rider Project (NYC).  In addition, she has self-produced work at the Musee d’Orsay (Paris, France) and Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto).

Currently, she is a sessional faculty at Emily Carr University of Art & Design and serves on a collective called the Mutual Aid and Reciprocity Fund (MARFEC) at ECU. Barry is also a member of the Board of Directors of the artist-run-centre, The Western Front (Vancouver).

In 2017, Barry was the Programmer for the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen  (MPCAS), a large, outdoor, urban screen launched by grunt gallery and the City of Vancouver in 2020. She also worked as the archival and research associate for the book, Wordless: The Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore in 2019. From 2011-2014, Barry was a member of the Board of Directors for FADO Performance Art Centre (Toronto) and was project manager for More Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, that was published in 2016.

Kate Barry has curated several shows most notably, PLACE for the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen, grunt gallery, Vancouver, 2020; Nature Lover: Performance for the Camera, the Fabulous Fringe Film Festival, Durham Region, 2017; 11:45PM: FADO Performance Art Centre’s Emerging Artist Series at Xpace Gallery, 2014, and White Wedding to the Snow: Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephen’s performance art wedding in Ottawa, Canada, 2010. From 2013 until 2016, she wrote a popular Blog called Performance Art13 that focused on the Toronto performance art scene from a visual art perspective.

Kate Barry, 2023