ANDRE BARKER

Andre Barker Jr. (b.1997) is a figurative painter from Detroit, Michigan. He graduated summa cum laude with his BFA from Wayne State University (2022) and is currently an MFA candidate at Columbia College Chicago (2022-2024). Though he did not consider a career in art until 2021, he has gone on to receive two Art Activity and Achievement awards from Wayne State University, a Dwight W. Follett Continuing Graduate Student Fellowship, and a Diversity and Inclusion Award from Columbia College Chicago. He has shown his work at The 3 Square Art Gallery in Fort Collins, CO; The Buckham Gallery in Flint, MI; The KCAD Alluvium Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI; The Detroit Historical Museum in Detroit, MI; and will soon have a solo show at M Contemporary Art in Ferndale, MI in 2024. He was also selected and included in Artistonish: Contemporary Art Magazine and Observica Magazine. The inspiration for his current work came from one of his many visits to the Detroit Institute of Arts. He noticed the lack of Black representation in the museum, where Black people were either excluded, hidden, or poorly rendered in classic paintings. His paintings depict contemporary Black people in artwork that uses the drama of the chiaroscuro technique and symbolism to capture a feeling of the poetic weirdness of the Black Experience through the lens of Afro-Surrealism. This is a subject that he will continue to develop as he works toward his MFA thesis at Columbia College Chicago and after he Graduates in 2024.

Instagram