George Barber's work on "The Greatest Hits Of Scratch Video" is internationally known and has been featured in many galleries and festivals across the world. The Independent and Sunday Times ran features on it, and the tapes, unusually for video art, sold in record shops. His two famous works of the period, 'Absence of Satan' and 'Yes Frank No Smoke' are screened regularly and many of the other works in his canon are considered seminal in the history of British Video Art.  

In recent times, as his work and career have developed, he has had an installation at Tate Britain entitled 'Automotive Action Painting' and shows of his video sculptures, 'The Long Commute' at Jack the Pelican Presents Gallery Brooklyn, New York. He has also been part of numerous programmes at Tate Modern and had retrospectives at the ICA, New York Film & Video Festival and recently at La Rochelle Festival, France. He has been written about by Paul Morley and Gareth Evans, the Time Out & Vertigo magazine critic. Victor Lewis Smith once devoted a whole page of the Evening Standard to 'Upside Down Minutiae' on 14th Dec 2001 after its broadcast on Channel 4's Slot Art. LUX is currently releasing a DVD compilation of his work, soon to be available world wide in all gallery book shops. Film & Video Umbrella have released a monograph. Seventeen Gallery and Anthony Wilkinson have also shown his work and he is often cited by younger video artists as being influential on their own practice.

Barber is eclectic, his ideas varied. After Scratch, Barber created many low-tech video pieces and was influential in defining an emergent 'slacker' aesthetic. Narrative and found footage seem to be at the centre of much of his work, either deconstructing it or trying as an artist to evolve an approach that is contradictory to the maker's original intention. His "Passing Ship" has been widely screened at festivals, as too his "Hovis Advert" and "Walking Off Court". Barber's skills as a writer have led him to produce many lyrical works too, including 'Ansaphone', 'Withdrawal' and 'River Sky'. 'River Sky' is presently in the international touring show, 'Figuring Landscapes' starting at Tate Modern.

His monologues like "Refusing Potatoes" or "I Was Once Involved In A Shit Show" are simple performances that carry the viewer into a genuinely odd confessional world. The monologue form particularly suits Barber as his instinct for the incongruous is appealing. Here, as in Scratch, he is trying to 'layer' another of his own stories and thoughts onto someone else's creation, and piggyback on the original's cultural familiarity. This project also continues in his latest found footage work, 'Following Your Heart" and "Losing Faith" 2008. Both use off-air adverts and TV films, mostly American. The central conceit is to take found footage and manipulate it into a new artistic experience. The adverts and dramas all essentially present clichéd dialogue but by the use of repetition, music, the work rises away from being humdrum television into something more disturbing and effecting. The ingredients of television are inverted and put to new purposes.

He has also produced a number of 'language' free, conceptual works, like "Automotive Action Painting" and "Shouting Match" or "Beyond Language" which reference early video art yet are original too. "Automotive Action Painting" won First Prize at the 24th Hamburg International Short Film Festival in June 2008. He has also been writing a film for the UK Film Council.

EDUCATION

• 1977-1980: St. Martin's School of Art, BA in Sculpture 'A' (conceptual department) with distinction in Cultural Studies.
• 1982-1984: The Slade, University College London. MA in Experimental Department.

RECENT ACTIVITY

• "PAINT CAN" Travelling Gallery, Scotland.  Automotive Action Painting 24th 8 to 23rd 12 09
• DVD review August:  ART MONTHLY by Martin Herbert

• DVD review April : ART FORUM  http://www.artforum.com/film/id=22293
• DVD review August:  ART MONTHLY by Martin Herbert

• DVD review March: The Daily Telegraph (London) March 21, 2009 by Sukhdev Sandhu

• On-line reviews: http://dotcrawl.org/wordpress/?p=102
• By Susannah Thompson April 27th, 2009
•  http://www.expcinema.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=363%3Ageorge-barber-beyond-language&catid=23&Itemid=33&lang 
• By Marcos Ortega     February 07, 2009  

• George Barber at Light Industry at X-initiative’s NO SOUL FOR SALE June 23-28, 2009
  548 West 22nd Street, New York.
   
• Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.  The first time video is to be included. 8 June-16 August.  Automotive Action Painting.  http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/summer-exhibition/room-guide/gallery-x,943,AR.html

• George Barber, screening and lecture at Picture This, Bristol 17th June 09

• George Barber, screening and lecture Street Level, Glasgow 2nd April 09

• George Barber, screening and lecture at VIVID, Birmingham 4th April 09

• George Barber, screening and lecture at Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, 29th April 09

• Jury member for the 25th International ShortFilmFestival Hamburg.  June 2-9th.

• European Media Art Festival Osnabrueck 22. - 26. April 09 “Welcome” shown.

• Chapter Arts, Cardiff  May 23rd 08  Installation Automotive Action Painting

• Launch by LUX of new DVD of George Barber's complete works. The DVD will be on sale in most art shops across UK, the US and Europe. March 4th 09. Also, TOURING SHOW linked to DVD around UK.
• 'Figuring Landscapes' Tate Modern. 7th Feb 09. 'River Sky' (funded Film & Video Umbrella) featured and part of book 'Landscapes in Moving Image' by Catherine Elwes.
• "Following Your Heart" Arouca Film Festival Portugal. Premiere of work. www.aroucafilmfestival.com/ 23 Nov 08.
• "Colour Field Film and Video" TATE MODERN "TILT". Simon Payne curator. Friday 21 November - Saturday 22 Nov 08 www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/colourfieldfilmandvideo.htm
• 24th Hamburg International Short Film Festival 4 - 9 June 2008.   First Prize "Automotive Action Painting".

• First Prize 24th Hamburg Short Film Festival. "Automotive Action Painting". 2008.
• Grand Prix  Split Film  & Video Festival 2004
• Gold Award at ARS ELECTRONICA, AUSTRIA for innovative computer work, '2CB CURTAIN TRIP'. 1998
• Gold Award  Chicago Film Festival  1990
• Award for life-time contribution to video art by Exploding Cinema Group, 1996.
• D&AD AWARD 1986

• Chapter Arts, Cardiff. Installation: "Automotive Action Painting", May - June 08.
• Jack the Pelican Presents Gallery, Brooklyn, New York jackthepelicanpresents.com 12th Dec to Feb 14th 07
• Festival International du Film de La Rochelle. Retrospective. www.festival-larochelle.org 29 June - 9th July 2007.
• Kirkcudbright International Art Festival July 07. One man show. Various works. Installation "Automotive Painting".
• TATE BRITAIN from Nov 3 - Dec 8 06. Installation "Automotive Painting".
• Private French collector buys "Shouting Match" limited edition. Also, "Passing Ship" bought for the collection of Oberosterreichisches Museum, Linz, Germany Jan 06
• "NEW WORK" One man show Sept 24th - Nov 12th LONDON GALLERY WEST , 7 large photographs and 2 video installations. Previewed Time Out, interviewed by Gareth Evans, critic TIME OUT and VERTIGO with audience. Screening at Old LUMIERE CINEMA, University of Westminster. Wed 6th Oct 04
• OPEN EYE GALLERY Liverpool, One man show entitled "SHOUTING MATCH" 31st Jan-6 March PREVIEW in GUARDIAN 04.
• Installation including 'Upside Down Minutiae' and 'Yes Frank No Smoke'. 24th - Nov 12th May 02. Gallery Contemporain Centre Regional D'Art SETE, France
• WORLD WIDE VIDEO FESTIVAL "Shouting Match" installation. June 04 with catalogue.
• Video installation at Video Positive 2000 Citadel, St Helens. 'Discrepancy'. 2000

• Launch by LUX of new DVD of George Barber's complete works. The DVD will be on sale in most art shops across UK, the US and Europe. Dec 4th 08.
• "Colour Field Film and Video" TATE MODERN, "TILT". Simon Payne curator, 'Contrasting Surfaces Programme'. Nov 08
• 'Figuring Landscapes' Tate Modern. Sept 08. Work featured and part of book 'Landscapes in Moving Image' by Catherine Elwes.
• FIRST PRIZE 24th Hamburg International Short Film Festival June 08. "Automotive Action Painting".
• BFI Southbank 'Antartica Starts Here'. "Automotive Action Painting" June 08 NFT2.
• SEVENTEEN GALLERY, London. June 08. Work shown in show on found footage. 'Scratch Video'.
• Britspotting, British & Irish Film Festival. Berlin. April.08 "Automotive Action Painting",
• Dundee Contemporary Arts. Work shown as part of 'Scratch'. (Rewind.ac.uk) April 08
• Sadler's Wells March 08. Live Screen, an initiative to combine artist's films and dance. Curator Sacha Cradock, "Automotive Action Painting".
• Stuttgart Film Winter, "Automotive Action Painting", Jan 08
• European Media Art Festival Osnabrück, "Automotive Action Painting" April 07
• SITE GALLERY Sheffield Aug 07 "Shouting Match"
• FACT, Liverpool, June 07 "1001 Colours Andy Never Thought of"
• Festival 2Annas Riga May /07 "Walking Off Court"
• Visonic Belfast June/07 "I Was Once in a Shit Show" BKK Festival, Bangkok, Thailand, Oct/07 "Automotive Action Painting."
• VTape Toronto, Oct/07 "Withdrawal"
• Kassel Documentary Film Festival "Automotive Action Painting" 13/11/07
• Transat Video CAEN, France. 20-29 June 2007, Nine works shown. (Automotive Action Painting, Branson, Absence of Satan, What's That Sound, Yes Frank No Smoke, Shouting Match, The Weather, Withdrawal, Upside Down Minutiae, 2001 Colours Andy Never Thought Of).
• 40 UK venues including Pump House Gallery and the Wapping Project, Arnolfini, Cornerhouse, Manchester Art Gallery, Ikon Gallery show "Automotive Action Painting".
• Tate Modern & Tate Britain , "Analogue: Pioneering Video from the UK, Canada and Poland (1968-88)"
• 24 November - 2 December 2006. "Branson" included in package. www.uclan.ac.uk/edau
• Tate Modern "Anticipating The Past", May 2006. Chair of discussion panel and three pieces screened.
• Site Gallery Sheffield. Transmission Talk series. Nov 06
• Free Speech TV, USA, public service station, "Walking Off Court" broadcast on. February 06
• Screening in Festival International du Film Amiens, France. "Shouting Match" Nov 005.
• Indielisboa, 8/04, Nuit Blanche, Paris, 9/04, Rotterdam Film Festival, 1,05, Sixpack Film, Vienna, 4/05, Némo Film Festival, Paris, 4/05, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, 5/05, Transat Video, Caen, France 10/05, Festival International du Film d'Amiens, 11/05, MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium. 6/06, Kino Arsenal, Berlin. 10/06 - all show "Shouting Match":
• International Film Festival Rotterdam, "What's That Sound?", Jan 05
• WINTERTHURSwitzerland, "Shouting Match" Short Film Festival Nov 04
• National Portrait Gallery, "Withdrawal" shown and on discussion panel at June 20th 04
• Melbourne International Film Festival "Walking Off Court "June 4th -12th 2004
• Island Film Festival Scratch Vol.2 Prenelle Gallery, West India Quays www.prenelle.com. April 15th 04
• The Bloomberg Show, "The Mind Is a Horse", City of London "TILT" March 27th - May 8th. 04
• EMAF OsnabruckGermany "Walking Off Court" April 10th 24th 04
• Untitled - S1 Artspace Sheffield, Feb 04
• BCA GALLERY, Bedford "Unlimited Edition" 11 Jan - 21 Feb 2004
• Millais Gallery Southampton Various Works Unlimited Edition 3 Nov -24 Jan 2004
• IPER Festival Switzerland 'Walking Off Court' shown as installation. 4-8 Nov 2003
• Tate Britain "A Century Of Artist's Film in Britain" 'Tilt' selected. 20Jan-20 March 04
• Media Art Festival Friesland, Holland 'Walking Off Court' 4-20 Sept 03
• SPLIT Film & Video Festival, Croatia. 'Walking Off Court' GRAND PRIX awarded by international jury. 14-27 Sept 03
• New York Video Festival 'Walking Off Court' shown at 24-28th July 2003
• 'Next 5 Minutes', Spain September 2003
• World Wide Video Festival Holland 8-16th May. 02
• LUX Open Show 2002 4-8 May ROYALCOLLEGE OF ART, Walking Off Court and I Was Once Involved In A Shit Show.
• GATE Work screened in Dartmoor outdoor film event. August 2002. Curator -Tina Keane
• Tate Britain Programme presented by Dryden Goodwin. March 02.
• Aquaria exhibition in Landesgalerie, Oberosterreich, Austria, Feb 02
• The Video Show at Anthony Wilkinson Gallery work included Feb 02.
• Toronto International Video Art Biennial work shown in Light Structures curated by Dryden Goodwin. October. 2001
• Video A Mi Gusto Instituto De La Juventud. Madrid. Oct. 2001.
• European Media Art Festival Osnabruck'Upside Down Minutiae' April. 2001.
• National Film Theatre UNLIMITED EDITION June 2001.
• SLIPSTREAM Internet Interventions www.slipstream.uk.net ICA 2001. (Still on-line)
• VIPER Festival 'River Sky' shown at. 01.
• British School in Rome Video work on show at. May 00.
• HOME SWEET HOME, Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. 1999' Withdrawal' video installation at.
• ICA, Five pieces shown at 'FUZZY LOGIC'. 1998.
• ICA as part of Channel 4's Animate Scheme show 'Withdrawal' 97.
• Guardian Videopositive 'Simultaneous City' Review. 1997.
• Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool. Installation entitled RIPE, at 1997.
• WHITECHAPEL OPEN 'Ansaphone' included in. 1997.
• Jan van Eyck Academy & locations, Jan., Maastricht (NL) "A Scenic Detour through Commodity Culture", 1997. Video programmes in two public locations.
• ICA Retrospective of work at, The Mall, part of the Pandemonium Festival. Programme notes by Suzanne Moore of The Independent . 96.
• Vigo Festival, Australian Film & Video Festiva showl 'Passing Ship'.
• World Wide Video Festival, Locarno Video Festival and work in Touring Package by Tom Van Vilet. Also, Pompidou Centre Paris.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• "Looking at Pop Videos and Thinking About Other Things", George Barber, AND - Journal of Art and Education, No 1 Winter, UK, 1984
• "Scratching Deeper", Michael O'Pray, Art Monthly, 1986.
• "Close-Up: Nick Logan", George Barber, Marxism Today, September,1988
• "Island that daren't face the music", Miles Kingston, The Independent on Sunday, 24th March, UK, 1991
• "This Week - First Person", Quentin Curtis, The Independent on Sunday, 24th March, UK, 1991
• "Back Bites - Hell for Leather",  George Barber, The Independent Magazine 13th August, UK, 1994
• "Back Bites - Last Action Paintings", George Barber, The Independent Magazine 10th September, UK, 1994
• "Back Bites - Seeing is Believing", George Barber, The Independent Magazine, 22nd October, UK, 1994
• "Go West, Eastender", George Barber, The Independent Magazine, 19th November, UK, 1994
• "Passing Ship", George Barber, World Wide Video Festival, Holland, 1994
• "George Barber Retrospective", Suzanne Moore, Pandemonium (catalogue), London Electronic Arts, UK, 1996
• "Cyberspace Video High Volume One", Jim McClellan, The Observer, UK, 1998.
• "Cyberspace Video High Volume One", Steve Beard, ID Magazine, UK, 1998.
• "Cooking for Terrorists", Julian Petley , New Statesman, June, UK, 1988.
• "Il Fenomeno Scratch", Maria Rosa Sossai, Videovibe, Castelvecchi Arte, Italy, 1988, ISBN 88-8210-230-0
• "Yes Frank No Smoke", Michael O'Pray, The Elusive Sign, Arts Council of Great Britain / British Council, 1988
• "Scratch and After - Edit Suite Technology and the Determination of Style in Video Art", George Barber, Culture Technology & Creativity, J. Libbey, 1988.
• "The Venetian Ghost", Steven Bode, Independent Media, Issue 77, 1988.
• "George Barber" A Directory of British Film & Video Artists, The Arts Council of England, University of Luton Press, 1996, 1-86020 003 6.
• Mentioned in Martin Amis's book 'Experience' Cape, UK, 2000
• Julian Stallabrass, High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s, 1859847218. Quoted.
• "George Barber", The Other Side of Zero, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), UK, 2000
• "Hanging Out With Artistry", Victor Lewis-Smith, Evening Standard , 14th December, UK , 2001
• Preview Section The Guardian newspaper, "Shouting Match" Jan 14th 2004
• Preview Section TIME OUT, George Barber New Work, London Gallery West, Oct 10th 2004
• "The Signs of LA", George Barber, essay in FILMWAVES MAGAZINE, Editor-publisher, Marco Zee-Jotti ISSN 1460-4051 Oct 2004
• Monograph with FILM & VIDEO UMBRELLA, essay by Matthew Collings and essay by Gareth Evans, critic for TIME OUT. March 2005 with linked event at National Film Theatre.
• "The animate book - rethinking animation", featured artist, edited by Ben Cook and Gary Thomas. ISBN 09548569-2-9  DEC 2006

TV BROADCASTS:

• Channel 4 broadcast 'Upside Minutiae' as part of SLOTART 7.55pm Dec 13th. 2001.
• Rave review given by Victor Lewis Smith in Evening Standard.
• Channel 4 broadcast 'The Weather', a computer animation commissioned under the Arts Council of England's HI-Tech Scheme. 1998.
• Directed 'THE HAPPENING HISTORY OF VIDEO ART' for the BBC 2's LATE SHOW. 60-minute programme on Video art. Producer John Wyver.
• Interviewed on BBC 2's'Saturday review' and 'Riverside'. 1988. Extracts of 'Yes Frank No Smoke' shown.

BBC RADIO BROADCASTS:

• Marc Porter Zasada, "A Vulgar Happiness " short radio piece featuring my work.
• BBC World Service broadcast experimental drama entitled 'COLLAPSE'. 1999.
• BBC RADIO 4 and BBC WORLD SERVICE Three 40 minute documentaries series entitled 'ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN' broadcast. Written and presented by myself. 1998.
• 1998 BBC RADIO 3 broadcast experimental drama entitled 'COLLAPSE' written and produced with Eddie Berg.
• BBC RADIO 4. Presenter and writer of 40 minute documentary on how new technology is effecting today's music, entitled 'The Producers'. Producer Matt Thompson. 1998.
• BBC Radio 2 presented documentary on racing for 'The Locker Room' BBC Radio 4. 1997.
• Reporter and presenter for BBC RADIO 4 contributions to magazine programmes 'Kaleidoscope', 'Afternoon Shift' and 'Going Places'. 1994-96.
• BBC 4 Radio series. Wrote and presented series of 4X10 minute monologues entitled 'MEDIA DAZE'. Received glowing review in the INDEPENDENT on SUNDAY Miles Kington. 1988
• Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's 'Kaleidoscope' reviewing John Wyver's 'Ghosts In The Machine' - a history of video art. 1986.