COLLEEN BARRY

GOOD MUD

Opening: March 26th, 6-8 PM

March 26th - April 24th, 2025

Drawing from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés' quote, “She is the smell of good mud and the back leg of the fox,” Colleen Barry’s exhibition GOOD MUD channels the primal, raw energy of the feminine spirit through a blend of classical humanism and mythological symbolism.

GOOD MUD explores the untold stories of the feminine, rooted in the chthonic, earthy realms often overlooked in modern discourse. Barry’s figures, learned through rigorous study of European art traditions, are bold, expressive, and deeply tied to the human experience— particularly the feminine. These figures reject nihilistic trends in contemporary art and education, embracing the vitality of ancient forms while confronting the complexity of modern life.

At the core of this exhibition is Barry’s exploration of the female body—earthy, ancient, and powerful. As Camille Paglia writes in Sexual Personae, “The chthonic female is a force of nature, her power savage, untamed. She is the dark mother of destruction and regeneration, the force that swallows life and brings it forth again.” Barry’s figures, grounded in the weight of gravity, embody this force, with poses that reflect both the timelessness of nature and the strength of motherhood.

A key element of Barry's artistic vision is her compulsion to depict the female form in its raw, unadorned nudity. She believes that presenting the female body in its natural state, much like the iconic Venus of Willendorf or the statues of Greco-Roman nudes, offers a profound connection to our shared cultural history. For Barry, the female nude is not only a powerful visual expression of womanhood but also a celebration of the sacred and transformative energy embodied by the feminine. This dedication to the nude as an artistic form challenges societal discomfort with the body and celebrates its presence in art as an essential part of human culture. Through her paintings, Barry invites the viewer to reconsider the female body as a living, breathing cultural gift—one that carries not only its own narrative of strength and beauty but also serves as a reminder of the importance of the natural, feral forces that shape our world.

In a world where the primal and powerful force of the “savage woman” is being increasingly suppressed by modern culture, Barry’s work asks women to reexamine their place in contemporary life. Modern media, with its worship of celebrity and technology, has reduced our earth deities to mere commodities, distracting us from our deepest instincts. Barry challenges this erosion of the feminine and urges women to “relearn” what it means to be female in a world where the sacred is often ignored. Motherhood has been away in which Barry has reconnected to her more primal feminine self.

A key motif in Barry’s work is the connection between the female body and the canine. Referencing the myth of Romulus and Remus, where a she-wolf nurses the twins who would found Rome, Barry uses the dog as a symbol of fierce protectiveness and nurturing care. For Barry, this pairing speaks to the untamable, raw force of motherhood—an energy that yearns to be wild, free, and unbound from the constraints of modern life. Raised in New York City, and a mother of two, Barry’s work reflects a deep longing to reconnect to something more primal and true to the human spirit.Through a Jungian lens, her work invites exploration of ancient myths, reminding us of their power and relevance in a world often disconnected from these stories. Barry’s figures channel an energy that is both sacred and primal, a reflection of our collective memory.

GOOD MUD challenges the viewer to reconsider the role of art in an age where the sacred and the wild are often sidelined. Barry’s work serves as a return to the primal forces of life and a reaffirmation of the human spirit—reminding us that art, at its core, is both a reflection of the human condition and a vehicle for transcendence. The female nude, as Barry states, “is not simply a representation—it is a living, evolving symbol of culture’s ability to reclaim what is often discarded, forgotten, or misunderstood”.