Is it precisely these spaces that Barnard is depicting — institutions of privilege. The emphasis in this series is to highlight the role of these spaces in the perpetuation of racial violence in the United States, and these paintings call us to reconsider their supposed neutrality. These places are non-specific, but they are familiar to us: University libraries, courts of law, art institutions, and the kind of monumental spaces that are always associated with wealth and authority. But these are not literal depictions; something is happening in these spaces. They appear to be rotting and decaying, bleeding and transmogrifying. The scenes recreated resemble more a horror-themed video game than a social reality.

Chris Barnard “Acquitted” (2017) Oil on canvas over panel, 80 x 66 inches
Chris Barnard “Acquitted” (2017) Oil on canvas over panel, 80 x 66 inches - Yet there is one place specifically depicted — MoMA, in the work “Acquitted” (2017), which contains two references to racialized violence inside the painting. In the lower background there is a ghostly rendering of the LAPD officers acquitted of assault in the beating of Rodney King in 1991 (the acquittal led to the 1992 LA riots in which 63 people were killed) which was videotaped and subsequently aired throughout the world, raising eyebrows about the treatment of African Americans in the United States. In the foreground there is a rendering of Carl Andre’s “144 Lead Square” (1969), a work of the artist who was acquitted, in 1988, of the murder of his wife, the artist Ana Mendieta.

In many of the compositions, which reference real spaces, Barnard has inserted fictional features that point to potential allegiances, investments, priorities, and unearned-and-yet-protected benefits. The resulting works are representational, but through gesture, color and surface manipulation, Barnard suggests instability, corrosion or decay. These works are the product of imperfect efforts to paint some of the evidence of things “seen” and “not seen” and to situate that evidence in ways that point back to our institutional and personal complicity with racism.  9from the exhibition website0