Josephine Barreiro

(b. Newark, NJ) Josephine Barreiro (aka J131 for her street art) earned her MFA in Fine Arts and MA in Art Education at New Jersey City University and holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, NYC. Ms. Barreiro was raised in Newark and has been an art educator in Newark Public schools for over 20 years. Josephine has also been a Professor of Fine Arts at Kean University for 18 years. Her body of work is laced with emotion, spontaneous energy, distinctive use of line, saturated colors and her Spanish heritage. Ms. Barreiro was featured in The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project in 2018. Her works were exhibited at Pen and Brush Gallery, NYC, where she created a live painting during the exhibition. Ms. Barreiro was also featured in a NYC-ARTS segment on PBS in 2016. She is also an active member of the Neo-Latino Art Collective and the West Orange Arts Council.

Josephine Barreiro has exhibited at the The Fountain Street Fine Arts Gallery, Framingham, MA; Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA; Pen + Brush Gallery, Wilmer Jennings Gallery, New York, NY; Hall of Fame Gallery- BCC, Bronx, NY; Human Rights Institute Gallery, James Howe Gallery, Union, NJ; Paul Robeson Gallery, City Without Walls, 27 Mix, L.I.P.S, Index Art, Newark, NJ; Distillery Art Gallery, L.I.T.M, Harold B.- Lemmerman Gallery, Jersey City, NJ; Valley Arts Gallery, Orange, NJ; Ben Shahn Gallery, Paterson, NJ; Raritan Valley Community College, Somerville, NJ; Monmouth Museum, Lincroft NJ; The Arts Guild, Rahway, NJ and UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art, Colorado Springs, CO; among other locations.

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Selected Artwork

Art has taken me on a journey through my cultural memories and life experiences fueled by emotion and the passion for my craft. My color canvases show the influence of my Spanish heritage as well as early 20th century Spanish painters. My black and white works refer to emotions we feel and often portray our socio-political situations expressed through gestural figures or animals who share their predicament with us. Animals serve as metaphors to exemplify our pain, love, sorrow, joy, anxiety and anger. My goal is to present images illustrating the human condition and its complexity.

My sense of time is suspended while working and my focus allows me to reflect on my ideas to complete each piece. Whether I'm working with color or creating black and white collage pieces, I look forward to the visceral experience of building mix media layers to illustrate real and imagined situations. The act of painting is an avenue delivering my ideas from my center to a tangible surface.