Quick Facts
Biography
Barry G. Masteller (born 1945) is an American abstract painter and photographer. His oil paintings are notable for their meticulous use of color and texture, often incorporating a substrate of cut canvas collage and other elements. His imagery ranges from landscape to non-objective abstract utilizing layers of tonal glazes.
Masteller was born April 21, 1945 in Los Angeles California and grew up in the Silver Lake district. His paintings are in the public collections of The Palace of The Legion of Honor, Achenbach Collection. San Jose Museum of Art, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, The Palm Springs Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, the Triton Museum of Art and the Monterey Museum of Art. He began painting as a teen and is mostly self-taught. During the 1960s his work was figure based and focused on portraits and abstracted landscapes. During the 1970s he moved toward a more surreal style in the manner of Rene Magritte and the Italian abstract artist Alberto Burri who influenced his use of cut and found fabrics often hand stitched to the canvas surface. In the 1980s he incorporated elements of architecture – pillars, cracked walls, arches and for a brief period illusionism. During the 1990s he returned to abstraction in a continuing series titled "Natural Occurrence" which began as impressions of the movement of water as seen in the reflections of sun and sky on the bay in Monterey California.
Masteller has had a deep interest in photography, especially after locating to the Monterey Peninsula from Los Angeles in 1970. His photographs are centered around landscape and the figure, often reworked in post production into abstractions that have an otherworldly look.
He said this about his photo work:
"As a painter - when I pick up a camera it becomes a drawing tool. Night photography has so many things about it that fit my aesthetic - a way to truly capture light and movement. Since the light is limited at that time of day and I'm using a hand held camera I can't expect to get a "picture." What I get instead is an image of long exposure red, white, yellow and green light line tracings; from street lights, signals, car and porch lights – the reseeding and approaching sunlight for its beautiful blues and violets and any other accidental light source that finds its way onto the sensor of my camera."
Barry Masteller in his Studio, 2015
Solo exhibitions
2015 Bridges and Echoes. Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA./ 2013 Along the Way. Hartnell College Art Gallery, Salinas, CA./ 2010 US Embassy, Kathmandu, Nepal./ 2009 Boulevards. Elenor D. Wilson Museum of Art,Hollins University./ 2007 Earth + Sky. The Grace Museum, Abilene, TX./ 2007Imagined Journeys. Wiregrass Museum of Art,Dothan, AL./ 2007 Cityscapes. Dubuque Museum of Art,Dubuque,IA./ 2007 Recent Work. Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco / Saint Helena./ 2006 Monterey Now. Monterey Museum of Art./ 2006 Landscapes.Campton Gallery, New York./ 2006 Mythical Landscapes. Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX./ 2006 Recent Paintings. Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA./
Public collections
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Art, Legion of Honor. SF
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
San Jose Museum of Art
Seven Bridges Foundation, Greenwich, CT
Bank of America World Headquarters, NYC
Price Waterhouse, New York
Monterey Museum of Art
Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History
Community Hospital of Monterey (CHOMP)
Triton Museum of Art
University of California Monterey Bay
Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA
Palm Springs Museum of Art.