Over the last five decades I have painted the land and its inhabitants as traditional landscapes, as surrealistic icons and as metaphorical images of time. In 2016 I started with my first site-specific installation: TORN-ADO which was about surviving disasters. Since them my installations have been about humans reactions to community and within the environment: COR UNUM for the Palazzo in the Commune of Spello (PG), spontaneous street installations in Venice and the installation at the Cite International des Arts, Paris, that focused on the homeless sleeping outside each night.
In the fall of 2018 I was part of a group of 20 international artists, scientists, musicians, and writers aboard the Barquentine Tall Ship Antigua on an expedition focusing on the remote and isolated Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. While I anticipated a certain awe and wonder about the Arctic, I did not anticipate the large number of women participants and crew members. The majority of those aboard the Antigua exploring the Arctic were women. What I saw in the art work of my expedition companions, women seem to see and understand this environment in a different spirit, perhaps more nurturing and communal. I began to question is there a different way, perhaps a feminine way, of investigating our moral relationship to nature and an ecosystem as unique and challenging as the Arctic?
The following are photos of Barbara Crawford’s installation tribute to healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic at University of Virginia Medical Center (UVA).
This experience, and the previous installations have led to a major shift in the direction and purpose of my work which is to only do public installations with a moral story. My first installation, after the Arctic expedition, was for Museum of the Church of Saint Francis in Montefalco (PG) Italy (See Below).
Since then I have written a short article about Women Artist in the Arctic for the photography magazine. My goal now is to arrange for exhibition venues for these artists so they can have a collective venue and voice for their art.
I am a professor of Art and Art History at Southern Virginia University with over 50 national and international exhibitions. My artist residencies include the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Tyrone Guthrie Center, Ireland, The American Academy, Rome, Italy, the Cite International des Arts, Paris, France and The Arctic Circle. My friend and mentor Cy Twombly sent me to Paris in 2009 where I and two artist from the Louvre painted his 3000 square foot ceiling for the Salle des Bronzes.
(Photos provided by Barbara Crawford)
If you would like to contact me or learn more about my work:
Academic Webpage: barbara.crawford@svu.edu
Webpage: www.barbara-crawford.com
Women in the Arctic and Antarctic 