Barb Schwarz Karst is best known as a painter who blends traditional media and subject matters with splashes of contemporary freshness and attitude. She “pushes the envelope” by manipulating oils and acrylics into what some viewers find intriguing, questioning the actual source of materials and their method of application. An original native of Montana, Barb is a classically trained professional artist whose formal education included a MIS graduate art degree from the University of Montana and a B.S. in Art Education from Montana State University-Billings.

Her inspirations for her works comes from a “heady,” intellectual approach to the expressive, deeply personal subjects that passionately inspired her. Currently, Schwarz Karst is continuing her production of the Montana Rust Belt: Abandoned Industries, a series of brightly colored, interchangeable square canvas oils depicting close-ups of rusted, damaged metal equipment, which summarize the dying and lost industries on which Montana was founded: copper mining, the oil industry, passenger trains, etc. Also, her Lands Alive series are energetic oils capturing an ethereal balance between the complexity and subtlety of ecology. This series was selected for the 2011 MORart Event through the Smithsonian Affiliate, the Museum of the Rockies, as a collaborative show of rural Avant-Garde oils.

Recent solo shows include works displayed in New York, Grids: Start Spreading the News, her July Cello show, Leaves: Nature’s Kiss, and a show for CTA Architects 75th Anniversary. Currently, she is the featured artist for the Garden City Autumn Art Auction; and additionally, has a selected painting in the Paris Gibson Square Art Auction.

Also, most noted is her Blades of the Mill exhibition of eighteen mixed media paintings, which depicts electrified portraits of her brother, Bob, four months into his eight months of chemotherapy sessions. These paintings, along with artistic essays depicting the midpoint of Bob’s cancer treatment and a commentary on life, have been warmly embraced by many members of the medical community and public. The Hektoen International Journal, out of Chicago, is currently featuring seven of the eighteen paintings and writings online.

Barb received a fellowship for two summers studying with TICA (Teacher Institute of Contemporary Art) with The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been involved with the Creative Capital Professional Development Program part of which was provided through the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Montana Arts Council. Recently, the Missoula native was invited and accepted to be an Active Member of the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic with her five inclusions of artwork into the Salmagundi Club in New York City.

Her work has been featured in worldwide and domestic exhibitions, publicized in several books and magazines, and has been acquired and housed in permanent collections of museums, corporate, private, and traveling collections throughout the United States. Barb currently resides in Missoula, Montana. She is currently represented by the Jest Gallery in Whitefish and Cello in Bozeman. You can see more of Barb’s work by going to her website at http://www.schwarzkarststudio.com/ or Facebook under Schwarz Karst Studio.