BIO

Multinational artist, educator and activist Barbara Syrenka explores her faith through a variety of mediums including sculpture, installation, performance, social practice and new media. Inserting craftwork into the spiritual, she redresses discarded objects in multidisciplinary artworks that question our assumptions about waste, nature and God. Barbara’s environmentally conscious practice reclaims worn out mass-produced objects through meticulous handwork and invites deep contemplation by employing thoughtful juxtapositions and historical references. When it comes to traditional art materials, she is especially drawn to plaster because of its historical use in medicine and association with the healing of broken bodies. Barbara also sees herself as a healer and often crowdsources materials from others so that her process and artworks can serve as a vehicle for communal physical and spiritual healing.

Barbara has presented her work in numerous exhibitions including at Hopscotch, the Ithra Museum, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Pintô International, Arcadia Earth, Chashama, Brickell City Center in Miami, Room 68, Hotel MC, the One Hotel, the Mid-Manhattan Public Library and OCAD University. Her commissions include large-scale sculptures for National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions as well as for the launch of partnerships between Mohawk Group and the Ocean Cleanup as well as Corona USA and Oceanic Global. She has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Massachusetts Cultural Council as well as the Ray Stark Film Prize. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Vogue, ArtNet, Curbed, and Time Out, among others. Barbara received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.