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EXHIBITION HISTORY
2013 — ART BLIND, Kunst im Stapelhaus / Berufsverband Bildender Künstler (BBK), Cologne, Germany
2013 — "OPULENT MOBILITY," Bell Arts Factory, Ventura, CA
2004–05 — SHARED VISIONS, Southern California College of Optometry, Fullerton, CA (photo-documented; reception photos scanned 21 Dec 2005)
God's Half-Witted Brother / In the Beginning
Acrylic & marker mixed media on canvas · 48x72 in · 1993
An African creation myth, and the words PRE-EXISTING CONDITION stencilled in the corner.
Barbara explained the title herself: it refers to an African legend in which God creates the perfect world and his half-witted brother messes things up. What she did with that legend is the point. She stencilled the international symbol of accessibility — the wheelchair figure — over and over, dozens of times, cascading down the canvas like rain or like tally marks. And then, in block capitals: PRE-EXISTING CONDITION.
It is the most directly political painting in the archive, and it was made by a woman who had been legally blind for roughly a decade when she painted it.
Acrylic and marker on unstretched canvas.
IN POSSESSION OF
Estate of Barbara Romain.
