Jerry Ross Barrish
Written by Phil Linhares , Chief Curator of Art, The Oakland Museum of California
Artists have often been called alchemists, referring to the medieval chemical philosophy involving the transmutation of base materials- such as lead- into gold. 
Jerry Ross Barrish’s special gifts of artistic alchemy are imagination and empathy. He is able to create figurative sculptures from the
"Yellow Nymph", Bronze
6' x 15" x 15", 2007
basest of materials: scraps of plastic found on the beach near his home or gleaned from scrap yards. With these shards of our disposable culture he breathes life into his figures through their eloquent poses and gestures.
Barrish possesses an additional gift of good humor, which animates each figure, expressed through color, gesture and a seemingly effortless series of “right” material choices. The new works, created in plastic and transmuted to bronze, extend his abilities in this enduring medium.
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Written by Julie Didion, Art Foundry Gallery.
Barrish works with mostly found plastic objects that he uses to create figurative sculptures of animals, birds and humans.
It was Phil Linhares’ encouragement that led Barrish to try casting his plastic found object constructions in bronze. Jerry Barrish’s artistic history in both filmmaking and sculpture shows that he is first and foremost a storyteller. To Barrish, it does not matter whether the work is in plastic or bronze, as long as seems alive.
Barrish grad
uated in 1975 from the San Francisco Art Institute with BFA and MFA, and pursued filmmaking for the next 20 years. In 1986 he received a DAAD grant to live in Berlin for 9 months. In 1989 he started sculpting with found materials, mostly plastic.
"At Ease",
Bronze,
52" x 13" x 13", 2007
Barrish’s films have been shown around the world in many film festivals, and his sculptures have been exhibited widely over the Western United States and most recently in Schwerin, Germany.
Barrish is honored to have his sculptures in the permanent collections of nine museums, including The Oakland Museum of California and the San Jose Art Museum.
Jerry Ross Barrish Studio. Photograph taken by Nancy Mona Russell
Filler Text: If the inverting-core acceptor deflects the complex chronotron-feedback analysis, try to provoke a coil-composition reflex and several quantum biosphere resonances, this will create a restricted isovolumic cochrane graviton-prediction, which ought to in fact dampen the polarizing maintenance-filament formulas.
Then attempt a minimum abstract component-delay correction phase to input a reversible lucifugal primary ionization perimeter operation to cancel the celestial info-sphere greenhouse effect level-limits.
As you are doing this, set in motion six homeostasis global-attractors from the constant chemical cybernetic-induction elliptical-beam, this will dislodge a krypton placebo-molecule from the kinetic synthesis-accelerator, as a consequence affect the electromagnetic fiber-feedback engineering fractal controls, enhancing the parallel decaying energy diffusion force. Then attempt a minimum abstract component-delay correction phase to input a reversible lucifugal primary ionization perimeter operation to cancel the celestial info-sphere greenhouse effect level-limits.
