Kathy Barber’s paintings have both a representational content and an abstract quality. This inherent contradiction is successfully argued so that the works transmute themselves.

Barber’s command of spatial depth, tonality, and composition is remarkable. Luminosity of surface and depth is achieved through careful layered application.

Landforms 56.04 (2004) makes reference to the particularities of characteristics of the central Otago landscape yet in no way is a strict representation of its form.

Barber employs bands of colour in Landforms 57.04 (2004) which are cleverly interwoven to provide structure and depth.

In Landforms 50.04 (2003) a transparent band runs vertically across the work suggesting a veil of light which creates spatial awareness and emotionally entices the viewer further into the work.

The exhibition culminates in Landforms 48.03 (2003) an extraordinary work that achieves a poetic and spiritual quality.