SOPHIE BARBER
Mackerel sky, mackerel sky, never long wet, never long dry
A new exhibition of Sophie Barber’s work, the first in her hometown of Hastings
Hastings Contemporary presents Mackerel sky, mackerel sky, never long wet, never long dry, a solo exhibition by British artist Sophie Barber (b.1996) in the town where she lives and works.
With intimate three-dimensional ‘cushion’ canvas paintings and large-scale works, Barber’s approach mixes humour and popular culture with folklore and the surreal, playing with the possibilities of scale, reference and materiality.
Rooted in the landscape around her, Barber’s works are less depictions of her native Sussex coast than distillations of the impression it leaves. Her visual world is filled with echoes of her environment: bird shelters, tents, beaches, and the region’s ever-shifting skies.
In the new work made for this exhibition at Hastings Contemporary, Barber also returns to her long-held interest in the stories and structures of art history. By referencing artists she admires, including Claes Oldenburg, Georgia O’Keeffe, David Hockney and Vincent van Gogh, Barber opens a dialogue between her own practice and theirs.
Mackerel sky, mackerel sky, never long wet, never long dry brings together the local and the legendary, the past and the present, showcasing Barber’s experimental practice which uses painting as a way of getting close – to place, history, and the things that matter.
Image: Sophie Barber, It Must Be Love, 2025, oil on canvas. Courtesy Alison Jacques © Sophie Barber; photo: Michael Brzezinski
