Brett Barmby is a Montreal based artist whose paintings offer a unique portrait of urban beauty.
The series "Buff Marks" is poetically subtle, with loose brushstrokes and quick, decisive gestures. On first glance, these paintings appear to be abstract compositions, however they offer context for each other, revealing their subject when shown together. Each work depicts painted patches on city buildings, familiar interruptions meant to improve their concrete surfaces, though they are a defacement in themselves. These blocks of colour, as Barmby demonstrates, are often unintentionally beautiful, especially when recreated in buttery oil paint.
Brett Barmby's paintings explore the mundane, unnoticed, and overlooked moments of city streets. His work is effectively pared down to colour and form, offering a thoughtful appreciation of the way one mark covers another.
