PAST EXHIBITIONS

STILL LIGHT                                                                     

July 15 – September 4, 2023

“She is, quite simply put, the world’s pre-eminent watercolorist, persisting over the past four decades in the mastery of her idiom.”                      - Museum Director Charles Riley

Barbara Prey Projects is pleased to announce Still Light an exhibition of Barbara Prey’s new monumental watercolors which push the medium in new directions and size, continuing the investigation between reality and imagination.  As virtual worlds become a more prominent part of our daily lives, Prey looks to draw inspiration from nature and augment what is real.

“The world is moving at a faster pace, but through the artist eye it stands still and invites us to slow down and look”, said Prey.

Her attention to details recalls Vermeer..it’s a painter’s job to notice, and to draw out the nuance and light in what the rest of us ignore.  Prey has that eye and hand... what she makes touches the divine and  has  staying power.                                - The Boston Globe                                                                 

New York based, for over 40 years Prey has maintained a studio in Maine. The artist’s innovative eye for the American landscape has placed her paintings in the private collections of U.S. Presidents and dignitaries, business titans, European Royalty, celebrities including Orlando Bloom and Tom Hanks, as well as the prominent public collections of The National Gallery of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kennedy Space Center and the permanent collection of The White House, where she is one of two living female artists represented, among many other institutions. Commissioned by NASA (the only female commissioned four times), she was recently commissioned by contemporary art museum MASS MoCA to paint the largest watercolor in the world for their new building currently on long term exhibition at the museum. PBS referred to the MASS MoCA commissioned artists as “global leaders in contemporary art”.  Prey was appointed by the President of the United States to the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists are appointed for their contributions and recognition in American Art.

Included in the exhibit is a unique and never before seen painting Island Trekkers – a deeply personal figurative painting of her daughter and dog on a remote Maine island.  Trapeze Dance,  of a working fisherman’s workshop and sail loft,  highlights her use of color and light and continues the interior themes of her Presidential commissioned White House Christmas Card and her recent museum commission for MASS MoCA (8’ x 15’). The Pairing a painting of two fishing dories, is painted in Carver Harbor, Vinalhaven - the harbor named after one of her ancestors (her family were some of the first settlers of mid Coast Maine-a connection from her past to present. Continuing her waterlilies series, just featured in a major Impressionism exhibition in New York at the Nassau Museum, along with paintings by Degas, Renior, Cezanne, Turner, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and other iconic artists is Waterlilies III.

Prey’s highly original approach to painting has challenged conventional understandings of the genre.   She steers her way between realism and abstraction, painterliness and reduction, perception and synthesis. She references art history but transcends and creates a contemporary view with her unmistakable voice exploring the depth of the American landscape and her world. Prey's work establishes within the trajectory of American Art a 21st Century female lens, eschewing the historical male-tradition. As an artist working often en plein air, environmental issues and climate change are concerns that inform her paintings. Her layered, luminous, and nuanced paintings also speak to issues of gender, climate and ecology, and spiritual wonder. Prey’s practice evokes the seemingly everyday to push the boundaries of what the medium of watercolor can do.   A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with an essay by Museum Director Charles Riley (see below for link).

BARBARA PREY: AUGMENTED REALITY                                     

July 1 – July 14, 2023

“She is, quite simply put, the world’s pre-eminent watercolorist, persisting over the past four decades in the mastery of her idiom.”                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      - Museum Director Charles Riley 

Barbara Prey Projects opens the Season with Augmented Reality, an exhibition and celebration of Barbara Prey’s over 40 years of exhibiting in Maine and features never before seen oils and new watercolors. With her artist’s eye, preeminent American artist Barbara Prey examines the importance of the natural world, particularly her immediate environs and the ways we inhabit it in this collection of never before seen oil paintings.  With a strong academic background in art history (Williams College, Harvard) Prey's work explores memory, art history and is part of the trajectory of American Art with a sophisticated rethinking and contemporary take. "I think my work and space commissions with NASA helped me continue to look outward and the monumental size of my recent MASS MoCA commission, considered the largest watercolor in the world influenced my continued larger paintings," Prey said. Prey prefers to paint on site - these new paintings  are made directly en plein air, their brush strokes more gestural and impulsive, creating an intimate experience and presenting  a new way to view her overall work. Prey augments reality. Well known for her monumental watercolor paintings, these oil paintings provide a unique view into her thought process. Recently Prey’s paintings have been included in museum exhibitions in New York with Titian, Picasso, Matisse, Miro, Degas, Monet, Cezanne, Pollock and Jasper Johns among others. Three Maine paintings were included in Impressionism: A World View at the Nassau Museum in New York with Degas, Senior, Cezanne and Turner.

New York based, with generational roots in Maine, for over 40 years Prey has exhibited in Maine where she maintains a studio. The artist’s innovative eye for the American landscape has placed her paintings in the private collections of U.S. Presidents and dignitaries, business titans, European Royalty, celebrities including Orlando Bloom and Tom Hanks, as well as the prominent public collections of The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kennedy Space Center and the permanent collection of The White House, where she is one of two living female artists represented, among many other institutions. Prey was recently commissioned by contemporary art museum MASS MoCA to paint the largest watercolor in the world for their new building. PBS referred to the MASS MoCA commissioned artists as "global leaders in contemporary art". For the past fourteen years Prey served as the sole visual artist on the U.S. President-appointed National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists are appointed for their contributions and recognition in American Art.

OVER THE HORIZON: Celebrating 40 Years Exhibiting in Maine

July 16 - Sept 5, 2022

“She is, quite simply put, the world’s pre-eminent watercolorist, persisting over the past four decades in the mastery of her idiom.”                      - Museum Director Charles Riley

Barbara Prey Projects is pleased to announce an anniversary exhibition and celebration of Barbara Prey’s 40th year of exhibiting in Maine. Over the Horizon: What is Next is an exhibition of Prey’s new monumental watercolors completed over the pandemic period that push the medium in new directions and size. “The natural world provided an anchor during this time – these paintings point to the beauty, joy, wonder that was always there, providing a reset. As Nietzsche wrote, ‘Life consists of rare, isolated moments of the greatest significance’,” said Prey.

Her attention to details recalls Vermeer..it’s a painter’s job to notice, and to draw out the nuance and light in what the rest of us ignore.  Prey has that eye and hand... what she makes touches the divine and has  staying power.                -The Boston Globe

For over 40 years, Prey has maintained a studio in Maine. The artist’s innovative eye for the American landscape has placed her paintings in the private collections of U.S. Presidents and dignitaries, business titans, European Royalty, celebrities including Orlando Bloom and Tom Hanks, as well as the prominent public collections of The National Gallery of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kennedy Space Center and the permanent collection of The White House, where she is one of two living female artists represented, among many other institutions. Prey was recently commissioned by contemporary art museum MASS MoCA to paint the largest watercolor in the world for their new building. PBS referred to the MASS MoCA commissioned artists as “global leaders in contemporary art”.  For the past twelve years Prey has served as the sole visual artist on the U.S. President-appointed National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists are appointed for their contributions and recognition in American Art.

The new paintings in this exhibition expand our horizons during these challenging times and provide a window of meaningful engagement to our natural environs (a call to pause in our technically driven and often isolated world) and personal connection for Prey.

Trapeze Dance of a fisherman’s workshop highlights her use of color and light and continues the interior themes of her Presidential commissioned White House Christmas Card and her recent museum commission for MASS MoCA (8’ x 15’), considered the largest watercolor in the world, currently on long term exhibition at the museum. The Pairing a painting of two fishing dories is painted in Carver Harbor, Vinalhaven the harbor named after one of her ancestors (her family were some of the first settlers of mid Coast Maine)-a connection from her past to present. Also included is Waterlilies and six plein-air oil paintings, Fall Impressions and Late Afternoon painted in Maine and just featured in a major Impressionism exhibition in New York at the Nassau Museum, along with paintings by Degas, Renior, Cezanne, Turner, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and other major artists.

Prey’s highly original approach to landscape painting has challenged conventional understandings of the genre.   She steers her way between realism and abstraction, painterliness and reduction, perception and synthesis. She references art history but transcends and creates a contemporary view with her unmistakable voice exploring the depth of the American landscape. Prey's work establishes within the trajectory of American Art a 21st Century female lens, eschewing the historical male-tradition. As an artist working often en plein air, environmental issues and climate change are concerns that inform her paintings,

What A Long Strange Road It’s Been: Paintings From Quarantine

July 20 - Sept 6, 2021

Her attention to details recalls Vermeer..it’s a painter’s job to notice, and to draw out the nuance and light in what the rest of us ignore. Prey has that eye and hand... what she makes touches the divine and hasstaying power.     -The Boston Globe

Barbara Prey Projects is pleased to announce an anniversary exhibition and celebration of Barbara Prey’s 45th year of painting Maine. What a Long Strange Road It’s Been is an exhibition of Prey’s newmonumental watercolors completed over the year of the pandemic, pushing the medium in new directions and size. Prey examines the importance of the natural world during the times of lockdown and the ways we inhabit it.

For over 40 years, Prey has maintained a studio in Maine. The artist’s innovative eye for the American landscape has placed her paintings in the private collections of U.S. Presidents and dignitaries, businesstitans, European Royalty, celebrities including Orlando Bloom and Tom Hanks, as well as the prominent public collections of The National Gallery of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian American ArtMuseum, Kennedy Space Center and the permanent collection of The White House, where she is one of two living female artists represented, among many other institutions. Prey was recently commissioned bycontemporary art museum MASS MoCA to paint the largest watercolor in the world for their new building. PBS referred to the MASS MoCA commissioned artists as “global leaders in contemporary art”. For thepast ten years Prey has served as the sole visual artist on the U.S. President-appointed National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists are appointed for theircontributions and recognition in American Art.

The new paintings in this exhibition expand our horizons during these challenging times and provide a window of meaningful engagement to our natural environs (a call to pause in our technically driven world) which were both a constant inspiration and muse for Prey where death was present both personally anduniversally. The vast vistas (Osprey Nest, Early Light) are a continuation of both her documentation of spacehistory (the only female commissioned four times by NASA) and her recent museum commission for MASS MoCA (8’ x 15’), considered the largest watercolor in the world, currently on long term exhibition at themuseum. Social Distancing of two classic wooden fishing dories at sea but connected by rope is a metaphor of this time. A series of remote island paintings is also included.

Prey’s highly original approach to landscape painting has challenged conventional understandings of the genre. Her work is part of a trajectory of American Art through a 21st Century female lens, revising the male dominated art-historical watercolor tradition, but built on abstract painting as well, with a conceptualunderpinning of the composition and points of empathy around color, composition and subject. Beginning with marks on paper, and then built up through her evocative use of color (her dialogue with color drove Prey to develop groundbreaking,intricate layering techniques) and dozens of thin washes, often incorporating parts of her surrounds - water, soil, crushed shells add distinctive character to her work. She references art history but transcends andcreates a contemporary view with her unmistakable voice exploring the depth of the American landscape and in particular with the quarantine paintings the importance of nature and reconnecting.

9/11: 20 Years

Aug 15 — Sept 6, 2021

The focus of this timely exhibition is on works Barbara Prey created in the years 2001 and 2002, imagery that “pays tribute” at every level from the personal to the national. Prey is a lifelong New Yorker who witnessed the events in 2001, her Long Island hometown lost 43 people, friends and neighbors among them; she subsequently created a series of paintings in response to the attacks. Shortly after the tragedy, the artist felt an instant urge for new work, and she traveled up to her Maine studio for inspiration that led to one of her most recognizable series reflecting the impact 9/11 has had on her own modes of visual communication as an artist.  A selection of paintings from her 2001 trip to Maine is on view in 20 Years Later. Two signature paintings from her 9/11 series, Gallantly Streaming and Patriot, are currently on exhibit in the lobby of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Prey has been tasked with representing national tragedy as she was commissioned by NASA to commemorate the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2004. 

Isolation to Inspiration: New Oil Paintings and Prints

July 1 - 20, 2021

Barbara Prey Projects is pleased to celebrate their 21st season with Paintings from Quarantine: Isolation to Inspiration by celebrated artist Barbara Ernst Prey featuring two distinct series; never before seen oil paintings and newly released limited edition prints highlighting her distinct American vision.  The New York Times writes, “Prey is going where icons like Rauschenberg and Warhol have gone before”.  A key figure in American painting, her work is included in major public collections including The National Gallery of Art, The White House, The Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Kennedy Space Center and United States Embassies worldwide.  MASS MoCA commissioned Prey to paint the world’s largest known watercolor. She is appointed by the President of the United States to the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Arts.  She was invited to paint the official White House Christmas Card and her NASA commissions were part of the Smithsonian museum traveling exhibit NASA ART/50 Years. 
 
New print releases include Fibonacci’s Workshop (collection The National Gallery of Art), Gallantly Streaming (currently on exhibit at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations with prominent placement in the lobby) and a newly released print of her  8’ x 15’ MASS MoCA  commission for their new Building 6- considered the world's largest watercolor.
 
Her attention to details recalls Vermeer...it’s a painter’s job to notice, and to draw out the nuance and light in what the rest of us ignore. Prey has that eye and hand ... what she makes touches the divine and has staying power.                  —The Boston Globe 

Barbara Prey is considered one of America’s foremost painters. A living master, her recently completed commission for MASS MoCA, described as a “technical tour de force” by Director Joe Thompson, is the largest watercolor ever exhibited. Her paintings are in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian Art Museum, the White House, the Kennedy Space Center, among many other public and private collections.

For the past decade she has been a member of the National Council for the Arts, the governing body of the National Endowment for the Arts, a position she was appointed to by the President. In 2003 her painting of the Diplomatic Reception Room was featured on the White House Christmas card. With dozens of artworks commissioned by government agencies and institutions, such as four paintings for NASA, Prey is a global ambassador for American Art. Tapped annually for the U.S. Art in Embassies program, Prey’s work has been on display in over one hundred U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide.

Prey earned a Bachelor’s degree from Williams College, where she is an adjunct faculty member, and a Master’s degree from Harvard University. She has received numerous institutional accolades, including a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, and the New York Senate’s “Women of Distinction” Award, joining Eleanor Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony. She maintains studios in New York, Maine, and the Berkshires. 

RE/CONNECTING: New Oil Paintings and Prints

July 1 – 14, 2020

Barbara Prey Projects celebrates the gallery’s  20th anniversary season with Re/Connecting featuring never before seen oil paintings as well as a selection of newly released limited edition prints. After weeks of quarantine, Re/Connecting refers to our engaging with each other, to our communities and to our world.  These paintings chronicle a unique dialogue and fresh perspective of Prey’s immediate environs and her iconic village and island series - all painted onsite, whether traveling to remote islands or setting up an easel in town.  The Boston Globe writes:
 
Her attention to windows recalls Vermeer..it’s a painter’s job to notice, and to draw out the nuance and light in what the rest of us ignore.  Prey has that eye and hand... what she makes touches the divine and  has  staying power. - The Boston Globe
 
For over 40 years, Prey has maintained a studio in Maine. The artist’s innovative eye for the American landscape has placed her paintings in the private collections of U.S. Presidents and dignitaries, business titans, European Royalty, celebrities including Orlando Bloom and Tom Hanks, as well as the prominent public collections of The National Gallery in Washington D.C., The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kennedy Space Center and the permanent collection of The White House, where she is one of two living female artists represented, among many other institutions. Prey was recently commissioned by contemporary art museum MASS MoCA to paint the largest watercolor in the world for their new building. PBS referred to the MASS MoCA commissioned artists as “global leaders in contemporary art”.  For the past ten years Prey has served as the sole visual artist on the U.S. President-appointed National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists are appointed for their contributions and recognition in American Art.
 
New print releases include Fibonacci’s Workshop (collection The National Gallery of Art),  Gallantly Streaming(currently on exhibit in the lobby of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations) as well as a newly released print of Prey’s 8’ x 15’ MASS MoCA interior portrait - considered the world's largest watercolor – in addition to prints of her NASA commissioned work. New York based Prey is a longtime resident of Tenants Harbor, her family were some the original settlers of midcoast Maine. Prey’s much anticipated annual exhibit “20 in 2020”  celebrating the gallery’s 20th Anniversary is at Barbara Prey Projects July 15-Labor Day.
 
Come Celebrate our 20th anniversary in Port Clyde, the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage and 200 Years of Maine.
 
ABOUT THE ARTIST 
Barbara Ernst Prey, one of America’s most renowned contemporary artists.  Prey’s work resides in the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New York Historical Society, MASS MoCA, Kennedy Space Center and the permanent collection of the White House, where she is one of just two living female artists represented.
 
Prey has served for the past ten years as the sole visual artist on the U.S. President-appointed National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists are appointed for their contributions and recognition in American Art. In 2003, her painting of the Diplomatic Reception Room was featured on the White House Christmas card.  With dozens of artworks commissioned by government agencies and institutions, such as four paintings for NASA, Prey is a global ambassador for American Art. Tapped annually for the U.S. Art in Embassies program, Prey’s work has been on display in over one hundred U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, including those in Paris, Hong Kong, and Madrid. Her painting Gallantly Streaming is currently selected for exhibit in the lobby of the U.S. Mission to the U.N.
 
Prey earned a Bachelor’s degree from Williams College, where she is an adjunct faculty member, and a Master’s degree from Harvard University. She has received numerous institutional accolades, including a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and the New York State Senate’s “Women of Distinction” Award. 

 Download PRESS KIT and HIGH RES images here

Overturned Dory Teel Island, 2019, Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

Hupper Island 8AM, Oil on canvas, 12 x 16 inches, 2019

TUSCAN OILS

August 14 – Sept 2, 2019

In constant dialogue with her surroundings, Barbara Prey never travels without her painting supplies; brushes, paint, sketchbook—always within reach. TUSCAN OILS brings together her onsite paintings and unique reflections from recent travels in Europe, specifically the region of Tuscany in central Italy; Prey’s on-site painted views of Chianti’s olive groves and vineyards reveal her intense study and examination of her immediate surroundings and reflect on the artist as a world traveler; in her formative years after graduation from Williams and Harvard, Prey received a Fulbright Scholarship and a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, enabling her to travel, study, work and exhibit extensively in Europe and Asia—the sketch book always on hand. During her four years in Europe, the artist spent much time studying the lines of early Renaissance drawings, Gothic sculptures and architectural sketches. Absorbing her studies, Prey focused on drawing when she returned to the United States in the early 1980s where The NewYorker and other publications featured her artwork for over 10 years. The exposure to foreign cultures and new imagery are essential to her practice.  Painting utensils as steady companions, Prey continues her journeys, always seeking out new sites to work “en plein air”. Recent travels have taken the artist to Tuscany and the Dolomites in Italy, France, Scotland, Switzerland and Peru; "I’m always looking, thinking, and distilling”, she states.

THE ART OF LIGHT AND SPACE                                                                  

July 15 - Sept 2, 2019 

OPENING RECEPTION ON MONDAY, JULY 29 FROM 6-8PM

Barbara Prey Projects is proud to present a new exhibition: The Art of Light and Space, featuring recent paintings by internationally celebrated artist Barbara Ernst Prey, July 15 - September 2.

The title references ongoing exhibitions featuring Prey’s work - NASA ART 60 Years - on display at the Space Center in Houston, with her commissioned painting, The International Space Station.  She is the only female commissioned four times for NASA’s renowned art collection. Her NASA commissions documenting space history both broadened her perspective universally, and provided reflection on our place in the cosmos.  Back on earth, Prey is also an expert in depicting vast interior spaces. MASS MoCA (The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) commissioned her to create the world’s largest known watercolor painting (8 by 15 feet) for its new Building 6, where the work is prominently displayed in “the prow.”

MASS MoCA just unveiled Building 6, a massive addition of 130,000 square feet of exhibition space, and to inaugurate the new wing, more than a dozen exhibitions by a powerful array of blue chip artists are on display, one of which is something of a meta-show. Barbara Ernst Prey‘s Building 6 Portrait: Interior consists of a singular work—a giant, framed, 8′ x 15′ watercolor painting depicting the pre-renovation version of the same space the piece is housed in.                                                                                           —VICE Creators

The Art of Light and Space also stands in loose reference to Prey's concurrent exhibition at the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, MA (Borrowed Light, May 10 to November 11, 2019).  A core of the Hancock Shaker Village’s exhibition program is to invite well-known contemporary artists to visit and reinterpret the space and ethos of the Shakers.

The large watercolors included in The Art of Light and Space reference the importance of nature in an age of fast-paced social media technology, and invite the viewer to pause, put down the cellphone, and look - look at the rich colors, and the layering of deep hues, vividly reminding us of these spectacular color combinations from nature 

Prey’s aesthetic vision is influenced by her natural and man-made surroundings, as well as her scholarly background in art-history, memory, and keen observation of her environs - both intellectually and emotionally. 

Her painting “Handmade” not only celebrates the simplicity of the handmade but draws the viewer into the world of color with the strong abstract blue of the wateragainst the white boat, allowing for the natural shade of the paper.  “Spindles,” a series of Shaker threads, focuses on color and simplicity of design - while still utilitarian.

This exhibition features works that mine a uniquely American tenor with a relationship between narrative and abstract, creating a tension that is both serene and unnerving. Her dialogue with color drove Prey to develop groundbreaking, intricate layering techniques.  Beginning with marks on paper, and then built up through her evocativeuse of color and dozens of thin washes, often incorporating parts of her surrounds  - water, soil, crushed shells, paint chips from a former factory building add distinctive character to her work. 

The Art of Light and Space considers Prey's distinct perspective as a 21st century female artist, revising the male dominated art-historical watercolor tradition, as she explores the depth of the American landscape and American identity. 

Barbara Prey, (American, b. 1957 in New York) is a contemporary painter, most recently commissioned by MASS MoCA to create the largest known watercolor painting  (8 by 15 feet) for their new building. Prey’s work also resides in the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New York Historical Society, and the permanent collection of the White House, where she is one of just two living female artists represented.

Prey has served for the past ten years as the sole visual artist on the U.S. President-appointed National Council on the Arts, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists are appointed for their contributions and recognition in American Art. In 2003, her painting of the Diplomatic Reception Room was featured on the White House Christmas card, and dozens of her artworks have been commissioned by other government agencies and institutions, including four by NASA. Tapped annually for the U.S. Art in Embassies program, Prey’s work has been on display in over one hundred U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, including those in Paris, Hong Kong, London and Madrid. Her painting Gallantly Streaming is currently selected for exhibit in the lobby of the U.S. Mission to the U.N.  Prey has received numerous institutional accolades, including a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and the New York State Senate’s “Women of Distinction” Award.

Prey earned a Bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a Master’s degree from Harvard University, subsequently receiving a Fulbright scholarship in Baroque art and architecture. Prey is an adjunct faculty member at Williams College. She has studios in New York, Massachusetts, and Maine.

VISTAS: Recent Oil Paintings and New Print Releases

July 1 – July 14
, 2019

The summer 2019 season inaugural exhibition at Barbara Prey Projects featured Prey's latest intimate oil paintings. Due to the nature of the medium and the smaller scale of the works, painting in oil allows the artist to experiment with levels of freedom and informality not afforded by watercolor, the medium she is well known for and in which she created her 8 feet by 15 feet - considered the world's largest watercolor - interior portrait for MASS MoCA.
VISTAS will expatiate on Prey's iconic village and island view series as well as her paintings of Maine's working waterfront; visually exemplifying Prey’s ongoing dialogue with her immediate environs in the mid-coastal area of Maine, the works are observations of the same location’s evolution over the course of four decades.
In conjunction with the new oil paintings, recent digital print releases of selected works will also be on view. 

HERE AND THERE: Coastal Maine to the Shores of Cuba       

August 15 - September 4, 2018

Concluding the 2018 season at the gallery, Barbara Prey Projects is proud to announce Here and There, featuring recent travel paintings and local scenes from coastal Maine; August 15 - September 4.  

In constant dialogue with her surroundings, Barbara Prey never travels without her painting utensils; brushes, paint, sketchbook—always within reach. Here and There brings together memories and unique reflections from recent travels to Cuba and alpine regions in Europe to meet more familiar environs in her recent series of coastal Maine paintings. The world seen through the artist’s eyes, these works reveal Prey’s intense study and examination of her immediate surroundings. The travel paintings distinctively reflect on the artist as a world traveler; in her early formative years after graduation from Williams and Harvard, Prey received a Fulbright Scholarship and a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, enabling her to travel, study, work and exhibit extensively in Europe and Asia—the sketch book always on hand. During her four years in Europe, the artist spent much time studying the lines of early Renaissance drawings, Gothic sculptures and architectural sketches. Absorbing her studies, Prey focused on drawing when she returned to the United States in the early 1980s where The New Yorker and other Magazines published her artwork for over 10 years. The artist's discoveries and memorable moments during her travels, the exposure to foreign cultures and new imagery are essential to her practice.  Painting utensils as steady companions, Prey continues her journeys, always seeking out new sites to work “en plein air”. Past travels have taken the artist to Cuba, France, England, Scotland, Switzerland and Peru; "I’m always looking and distilling”, she states.

Earth, Sea, Sky (South)

July 15 - September 4, 2018

Barbara Prey Projects is proud to announce Earth, Sea, Sky (South), featuring recent paintings of internationally celebrated artist Barbara Ernst Prey, July 15 - September 4.  The title Earth, Sea, Sky (South) stands in reference to Prey's concurrent exhibition at the Wendell Gilley Museum (Barbara Ernst Prey: Earth, Sea, Sky  July 1 to October 14, 2018) located north of Port Clyde on Mount Desert Island. This exhibition considers Prey's distinct perspective as a 21st century female artist, revising the male dominated art-historical watercolor tradition, as she explores the depth of the American landscape and American identity. 

Prey’s aesthetic vision is influenced by her scholarly background in art-history, memory and keen observation of her natural and man-made environs both intellectually and emotionally.  The artist never shies away from challenging opportunities to open up new perspectives and push traditional boundaries. For her recent MASS MoCA commission, considered the largest watercolor in the world, Prey explored new ways to paint on a monumental scale.

MASS MoCA just unveiled Building 6, a massive addition of 130,000 square feet of exhibition space, and to inaugurate the new wing, more than a dozen exhibitions by a powerful array of blue chip artists are on display, one of which is something of a meta-show. Barbara Ernst Prey‘s Building 6 Portrait: Interior consists of a singular work—a giant, framed, 8′ x 15′ watercolor painting depicting the pre-renovation version of the same space the piece is housed in.     

                                                                                                                                                                                                               —VICE Creators

Her NASA commissions documenting space history changed Prey’s perspective, it required her to reflect on our place in the universe.

New York based, Prey has maintained a studio on the coast of Maine for 40 years. The artist’s keen observation of “land, sea and sky” features works that mine a uniquely American tenor with a relationship between narrative and abstract, creating a tension that is both serene and unnerving. The often-seen empty stacked lobster traps or the crumbling façade set against an otherwise picturesque backdrop in Prey’s recent oil painting Weather Beaten serve as metaphors for the increasingly difficult lives of local fishermen. Acadia, 2018 depicts the stunning beauty of Mt. Desert Island, but in its vastness can be read as loneliness as well, while stressing the importance of nature in an age of fast-paced social media technology, and invites the viewer to pause and look - look at the rich colors, the layering of deep reds above the saturated blues and oranges, vividly reminding us of these spectacular color combinations from nature.

Her dialogue with color drove Prey to develop groundbreaking, intricate layering techniques.  Beginning with marks on paper, and then built up through her evocative use of color and dozens of thin washes, often incorporating parts of her surrounds  - water, soil, crushed shells, paint chips from a former factory building add distinctive character to her work. 

Barbara Ernst Prey: Recent Oil Paintings and New Print Releases

July 1 - 14, 2018

The summer 2018 inaugural exhibition at Barbara Prey Projects will feature the artist's latest small-scale Maine oil paintings along with a new series of limited edition prints. Mostly known as a watercolorist, Prey has returned to oils, the medium in which she first began her instruction; the smaller size of the panels and the nature of the medium enable Prey to experiment with levels of freedom and informality not afforded by watercolor. The exhibition will expand her island series and—with a nod to Fairfield Porter—debut paintings of village scenes that reveal her continuous interest in architecture, thinking of her early illustrations for The New Yorker in the 1980s or most recently her 8 feet by 15 feet interior portrait for MASS MoCA. 

New print releases include Acadia (on view at the Wendell Gilley Museum, Southwest Harbor, June 30 through October 14, 2018) Gallantly Streaming (currently on exhibit at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations with prominent placement in the lobby) and Family Portrait (collection The Brooklyn Museum).

MASS MoCA: Studies from a Museum Commission

August 15 – Sept 17, 2017

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) has commissioned Barbara Ernst Prey to paint a groundbreaking monumental watercolor for their new Building 6 that opened its doors to the public at the end of May 2017.

Barbara Prey’s massive interior portrait of MASS MoCA’s 120,000 square foot Building 6 depicts part of the historic mill in its raw, un-renovated state, just prior to the beginning of the construction work. Measuring 8 feet tall by 15 feet wide, the painting is monumental by any standard, but for a watercolor on paper—perhaps the most unforgiving combination of any painterly media—the undertaking is truly breathtaking as it stretches the medium in new and exciting ways. The monumental scale of Prey’s project broke boundaries and opened up new ideas and concepts within the artist’s own practice; the project was a technical tour de force, requiring specially made papers, mounts, frames as well as an extra large studio space to paint.

As an artist that  works mainly on site, Prey spent countless hours in the space at MASS MoCA, looking, distilling and thinking about the architecture; as the concept developed, she started working on preliminary drawings during her visits. The studies began small and in pencil to accurately capture the architecture and overall composition; Prey then moved to color and larger formats, working out the light and the complex colors.

The drawings displayed in this exhibition serve as references for the final painting and uniquely chronicle the development of Barbara Prey’s commission for MASS MoCA.

Inflection Points: 40 Years Painting Maine

Barbara Prey Projects is proud to announce Inflection Points, the most recent works of internationally celebrated artist Barbara Ernst Prey, July 15 - September 4.  Taking the viewer from watercolors to oils, the White House to the Space Station, the architecture of Maine to the interior commission at MASS MoCA, this monumental and timely exhibit captures the Inflection Points of Barbara Ernst Prey’s place in American Art.

This exhibit considers Prey's distinct perspective as a 21st century female artist, revising the male dominated art-historical watercolor tradition, as she explores the depth of the American landscape and American identity.  Her work is part of a trajectory of American Art but built on abstract painting as well, with a conceptual underpinning of the composition and points of empathy around color, composition and subject. Her belief that color is the most powerful way to communicate drove Prey to develop groundbreaking, intricate layering techniques.  Beginning with marks on paper, and then built up through her evocative use of color and dozens of thin washes, often incorporating parts of her surrounds-  water, soil, crushed shells.

An American painter with an international reputation, Prey was appointed by the President of the United States to the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Arts. Members are chosen for their established record of distinguished service and achievement in the arts.  She has maintained a studio and painted in Maine for over 40 years. Inflection Points: 40 Years Painting Maine is a synthesis of her dialogue with her immediate environs in the Port Clyde, Mainewhich led to the Inflection Point of her MASS MoCA commission:

“Barbara’s painting will be monumental by any standard, but for a watercolor on paper – perhaps the most unforgiving combination of any painterly media — the undertaking is truly breathtaking.”

                                            — MASS MoCA on Barbara Prey’s commission for the Museum

The northeastern state has a long tradition in the history of American landscape painting, thinking of artists such as Hopper, Church, Homer, Wyeth—but few, if any, are women. And for Prey it is not only Maine’s history as a landscape subject that attracted generations of artists, there is a personal connection as she has family roots on the St. George Peninsula dating to the 1700s, when her mother’s ancestors lived in some of the same white houses that we now find in her paintings.

Barbara Ernst Prey: New Oil Paintings and Prints

July 1 - 14, 2017

Seavy Island, Oil on panel

BARBARA PREY PROJECTS is pleased to open the season with “Barbara Ernst Prey: New Oils and Prints” featuring  never before seen small-scale Maine oil paintings and a new series of limited edition prints by internationally acclaimed artist Barbara Ernst Prey. While Prey is mostly known as a watercolorist, the artist has recently returned to the medium in which she first began her instruction; the size of the panels and nature of the oil medium enabled Prey to experiment with levels of freedom and informality not afforded by watercolor. The exhibition will debut the paintings of nearby Seavy Island as well as new works from the artist’s Village Viewseries. New print releases include Gallantly Streaming (currently on exhibit at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations with prominent placement in the lobby) Family Portrait (collection The Brooklyn Museum), as well as two of her most sought after pieces Hydrangeas (Collection Bush Presidential Library) and The Collection will be on display in July.

Early Risers, Watercolor and Drybrush on paper, 22 x 30 inches

About the gallery

Barbara Prey Projects is a gallery and exhibition space in Port Clyde, ME. Opening as a gallery in 2000, BPP is housed in an historic waterfront structure that has been part of the community since the late 1800s, and has century-old ties to Maine’s prominent artistic tradition.855 Main Street, Port Clyde, ME 04855 (516) 316-7477 www.barbarapreyprojects.com

About the artist

Prey is one of the key figures of 21st century painting. She was appointed by the President of the United States to the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Arts. Members are chosen for their established record of distinguished service and achievement in the arts. Previous members include noted artists Leonard Bernstein, John Steinbeck, and Helen Frankenthaler.

Prey graduated from Williams College where she studied with Lane Faison as part of the Williams College Art Mafia and holds a master’s from Harvard University where she was able to continue her art history studies. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and a Henry Luce Foundation grant that enabled her to travel, study and exhibit extensively in Europe and Asia. She is an art blogger for The Huffington Post, a frequent lecturer and an arts advocate as well as adjunct faculty at Williams College.

Prey’s paintings are included in some of the most important public and private collections around the world including The White House (one of two living female artists), The National Endowment for the Arts, The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Kennedy Space Center, the Farnsworth Art Museum, Williams College Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art Dartmouth College, The Taiwan Museum of Art, New York Historical Society, the Henry Luce Foundation and the Bush Presidential Library and Center. She is commissioned by NASA to document space history.

IN SEARCH OF AMERICA

July 18 - September 5, 2016

“Color by-passes logic and speaks directly to our emotions, a powerful form of communication." –  Barbara Ernst Prey

Barbara Prey Projects is proud to announce In Search of America, the most recent works of internationally celebrated artist Barbara Ernst Prey, July 16-September 5. This monumental and timely exhibit explores memory, art history, and the influences of Color Field painters on the large-scale watercolors of Barbara Ernst Prey. In Search of America considers Prey's distinct perspective as a 21st century female artist, which is both essential to, and occasionally at odds with, her subjects as she explores the depth of the American landscape and American identity. Her belief that color is the most powerful way to communicate drove Prey to develop groundbreaking, intricate layering techniques. Beginning with marks on paper, and then built up through her evocative use of color and dozens of thin washes, often incorporating parts of her surrounds - water, soil, crushed shells - Prey's pieces defiantly search for America; asking questions of who am I and where are we going. While the work is predominantly American based in subject matter, the aura Prey produces throughout her work can be appreciated on a global scale. The exhibit confirms Prey's place as one of the most significant American artists, furthering the genre of American driven landscapes. 

Prey was appointed by the President of the United States to the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Arts. Members are chosen for their established record of distinguished service and achievement in the arts. Previous members include noted artists Leonard Bernstein, John Steinbeck, Richard Diebenkorn and Isaac Stern. Her painting Lineleader, is currently on exhibit at the National Endowment for the Arts in the office of the Chairman. With work in the White House’s permanent collection, her appointment to the National Council on the Arts, as well as a long list of important private, public, national and international collections, her place as a significant American artist is secure. 

In Search of America features works that mine a uniquely American tenor in which color creates the relationship between narrative and abstract creating a tension that is both serene and unnerving. This is seen in her new landscape Marsh Grass, which cuts across the color wheel, layering rich developed blues directly above saturated yellows and oranges and pointing us back to these spectacular color combinations from nature. Prey’s technique is especially apparent in Meeting House in which each wash has subtly changed the nature of the piece until the depth and balance are achieved, making the painting as much a reflection of the space changing over time and the artist’s memory changing over time. Her brushwork and layering of color positively thrives within this piece and truly proves why the Heckscher Museum Director Michael Schantz said, “Barbara Ernst Prey [is] one of America’s most gifted watercolorists...Barbara’s flawless technique ranks her among the most important artists who ever painted in the medium.” In Search of America at Blue Water Fine Arts brings together some of Barbara’s most powerful works both conceptually and aesthetically. Her reflections on the contemporary American landscape will be recognized on the time line of art history. 

Sarah Cash, curator of the National Gallery of Art, writes, “Among the foremost artists at work in the United States today, Barbara Ernst Prey has painted powerful, vibrant views of her surroundings for nearly forty years. The artist continues to take the watercolor medium, which has an august role in the history of American art, to innovative places. The New York Times writes, “Prey is going where artists Rauschenberg and Warhol have gone before.” 

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ON SITE: BARBARA ERNST PREY'S TRAVELOGUES

August 16 - September 5, 2016

PRINTS AND NEW OILS

July 1 - 17, 2016

SEASON OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, JULY 2 FROM 4-6PM

Barbara Prey Projects is pleased to open the season with “Barbara Ernst Prey: Prints and New Oils” featuring two distinct series; newly released limited edition prints and recent small-scale oil paintings.

New print releases of Gallantly Streaming (currently on exhibit at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations with prominent placement in the lobby) and Parade Route (on view at the U.S. Embassy in Hong Kong) produced in collaboration with U.L.A.E., which produces prints of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, are included in the exhibit as are prints of her iconic painting Patriot and her NASA commissioned work. A print of Family Portrait (collection The Brooklyn Museum), as well as two of her most sought after pieces Hydrangeas (Collection Bush Presidential Library) and The Collection will be on display in July. The Collection was selected by the U.S. State Department as the invitation image for every U.S. Ambassador and Embassy worldwide July 4th celebration. 

Also included in the exhibition is a selection of oil paintings featuring the recent “Village View” series as well as a group of small-scale plein air travel paintings. Those works mark a shift in Prey’s technique, and a return from works on paper into the oil paint medium. For the past four decades, Prey has been known for her incisive, saturated watercolors that operate as a record of the artist’s constant engagement with the multifaceted, ever-changing American landscape. In the past year, the artist has returned to the medium in which she first began her instruction, and created a new series of small-scale works on panel. The size of the panels and nature of the oil medium enabled Prey to experiment with levels of freedom and informality not afforded by watercolor.

The “Village View” series is a synthesis of Prey’s dialogue with her surroundings in Port Clyde, Maine and her observations on the same location’s evolution over the course of 40 years. The exhibition presents a meditation on place. The creation of the “Village View” series presented Prey the opportunity to revisit the pathways, architectural structures, and vistas she had seen for decades and her family had known before her.

The travel paintings distinctively reflect on the artist as a world traveler; in her early formative years, Prey travelled extensively on a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation—the sketch book always on hand. Barbara continues her journeys and has been working on a series of western/mountain paintings that will be exhibited in July; also on view will be recently finished Provence (France) paintings.

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RE/VIEWING THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

July 20 - September 8, 2015

“Color is the most immediate and powerful form of visual communication there is.  It is able to by-pass logic and speak
directly to our emotions.”  –  Barbara Ernst Prey

Blue Water Fine Arts is proud to announce Re/Viewing the American Landscape, the most recent works of internationally celebrated artist Barbara Ernst Prey, July 20-August 31. This monumental exhibition explores the influences of memory, Color Field painters, and art history on the large-scale watercolor landscapes of Barbara Ernst Prey.  Re/Viewing the American Landscape considers Prey’s distinct and evocative use of color as a 21st century female artist which is both essential to, and occasionally at odds with, her subjects as she explores the depth of the American landscape. Her belief that color is the most powerful way to communicate drove Prey to develop groundbreaking, intricate layering techniques, built up through dozens of thin washes on paper, often incorporating parts of her surrounds –water, soil, crushed shells - Prey’s pieces defiantly Re/View the American Landscape. While the work is predominantly American based in subject matter, the aura Prey produces throughout her work can be appreciated on a global scale.  The exhibit proves Prey’s place as a significant American artist furthering the genre of American driven landscapes.

Re/Viewing the American Landscape features works that explore natural instances in which color creates a jarring balance.  This is seen in her new piece Quadricentennial Nocturne, which cuts across the color wheel, layering rich developed blues directly above saturated yellows and oranges and pointing us back to these spectacular color combinations from nature.  Prey’s technique is especially apparent in Fibonacci’s Workshop in which each wash has subtly changed the nature of the piece until the depth and balance are achieved, making the painting as much a reflection of the space changing over time and the artist’s memory changing over time. Her brushwork and layering of color positively thrives within this piece and truly proves why the Heckscher Museum Director Michael Schantz said, “Barbara Ernst Prey [is] one of America’s most gifted watercolorists…Barbara’s flawless technique ranks her among the most important artists who ever painted in the medium.” Re/Viewing the American Landscape at Blue Water Fine Arts brings together some of Barbara’s most powerful works both conceptually and aesthetically. Her reflections on the contemporary American landscape will be recognized on the time line of art history.  

Sarah Cash, curator of the National Gallery of Art, writes, “Among the foremost artists at work in the United States today, Barbara Ernst Prey has painted powerful, vibrant views of her surroundings for nearly forty years. The artist continues to take the watercolor medium, which has an august role in the history of American art, to innovative places.  The New York Times writes, “Prey is going where artists Rauschenberg and Warhol have gone before.”

BARBARA ERNST PREY: PRINTS AND DRAWINGS 

JULY 1 - JULY 20, 2015

Blue Water Fine Arts celebrates its 15th Year with Barbara Ernst Prey: Prints and Drawings featuring a series of twenty newly released prints from July 1 to July 20.  New print releases of God and Country (exhibited at the U.S. Embassy Residence in Paris and part of Prey’s 9/11 series) and Parade Route (currently on view at the U.S. Embassy in Hong Kong) produced in collaboration with U.L.A.E., which produces prints of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, are included in the exhibit as are prints of her iconic painting Patriot and her NASA commissioned work. Prey’s paintings are in some of the most important collections worldwide including The White House, The Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kennedy Space Center and Tom Hanks. 

She was commissioned by the President of the United States to paint the official White House Holiday Card and by NASA to document space history.  A print of Family Portrait (collection The Brooklyn Museum), as well as two of her most sought after pieces Hydrangeas (Collection Bush Presidential Library) and The Collection will be on display in July. The Collection was selected by the U.S. State Department as the invitation image for every U.S. Ambassador and Embassy worldwide July 4th celebration.  Also included in the exhibit is a selection of small originals offering a preview of her upcoming annual exhibit, showcasing her virtuosic technique, authentic vision and distinctly American style. As Barbara continues her course of creating visually distinct and compelling work, for which she has garnered international recognition, this exhibit explores and highlights a new aspect of her practice rarely seen in her previous exhibitions-her drawings and travel drawings. These works distinctively reflect on Barbara’s early years as a painter as she traveled to Tainan, Taiwan on a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation and her early career as an illustrator for various publications such as The New Yorker, Gourmet and The New York Times. The Prints and Drawing Show illuminates the importance of Prey’s progression as an artist and allows the viewer insight into Prey’s current practice. This is truly a great opportunity to have access to a diverse range of Barbara’s original fine art prints.

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