Barbara is clearly influenced by her European cultural heritage, both its literary and art history, as reflected in her work ethic, uncompromising discipline and existential seriousness.
Those who have experienced Eastern Europe from the inside have been met by resistance and felt the indignation and the rebellion evoked within their own bodies. Her works consist of both images and spatial installations—the two media often enrich one another and contextually interweave one another within the exhibit space. When Barbara Wilson exhibits, you never quite know what is about to happen. Perhaps everyone else is a paid model and you are the only one on display like a sole spectator in a giant stage production. The exhibition is not just about the picture—the entire space itself is involved—the format and fixed frameworks are being challenged. The same applies to her works. You look at her paintings of people and see mysteriousness and fascination. She never defines a person, but rather opens a space around them, allowing room for mystery and reflection. Barbara Wilson considers the running of an artistic production a universal concern, rather than a national matter; and she refuses to define herself by nationality. This aversion to being defined and placed in a box applies to both the private person as well as the artist Barbara Wilson. She strives for the universal, but the universal must be concrete in order not to become too solemn and pretentious. Barbara Wilson is a dynamic, hard-working and highly experienced artist at a time when artistic experience is often ignored in favour of the new and the young. Barbara Wilson has the playful, inquiring approach and openness that is the mark of a young artist, but with a wealth of experience.
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