: Press :

"It may have the same name as Todd Solondz's black comedy about family dysfunction, but Happiness, a juried group show judged by London independent curator Sherman Sam, is complex, provocative, and diverse...Some highlights from the thirty-odd pieces include Steven Barich's graphite drawing, "Apophenia's Sphere," from his show at Rowan Morrison in July; apophenia is the perceptual error of seeing illusory patterns or meanings within visual chaos (an art reviewer's occupational hazard, of course), and the globular Chinese scholar's stone atop its carved pedestal that seemingly morphs into pixelated digital artifact or crossword puzzle expresses the arbitrariness of meaning in the floating world of signifiers."
- Dewitt Cheng, East Bay Express, 2010.

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"On the less figurative side is a graphite drawing, "Apophenia's Sphere," by Oakland-based Steven Barich. The 14-inch sphere of pixels plays with the instinct to create meaning out of visual images and how technology and nature condition that instinct.

Sam Sherman, curator, said he narrowed down the selection from more than 1,000 works by 300 artists. Rather than picking through any specific groupings, he instead chose individual pieces that would create a diverse collection and 'prove to be thoughtful experience.'"
- Angela Woodall, Contra Costa Times, 2010

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"Steven Barich consistently brings a refined flavor and a formal sense of execution to his choice drawings and paintings. A prolific artist with a number of different voices, he was able, in this show to tone down and focus many works through a single set of parameters."
- Obi Kaufmann, Artopic, 2009.

 

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"Installation artists took to the streets on Saturday for Southern Exposure's Juried Public Art/Urban Interventions day. Highlights included a complaint depository by Arianna Davalos, a guerilla-style excavation by B.A.R.G.E, a diary booth by Victoria Wagner, and a "Wanted Artist" campaign by Steven Barich."
- Justin Juul, SFGate, 2009.

'Each artist's piece translates the fascination and recontextualization that often happens through the typical artistic process, i.e., taking a subject—and for this show, a particular physical object, and re-presenting it to us from another angle, another viewpoint, another understanding,' says Barich. 'The object/artwork now presented is both its own "thing," while simultaneously linking to the original...read more...
- Theo Konrad Auer, The Oakbook, 2009.

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"Steven Barich’s show at Rowan Morrison is comprised of a series of mostly-compact graphite drawings of logic stones, in which the stones themselves are rendered in a pixelated greyscale grid. The images in reproduction look flat, but the drawings have a lot of “hand” in them; the teeny scale of the pixels seems to point your attention to the tooth of the paper, the grains of graphite. “Technology v. Nature” seems to be an overworked thread in contemporary art, but Barich's drawings depict as well as enact this dichotomy. The labor of representing a machinelike perfection in pixels is contrasted with the labor in representing the baroque carvings of the stands. It’s also interesting to notice that so much pixel-based hand-made contemporary art uses full color spectra, whereas Barich’s work is limited to shades of grey. I imagine it’s not an easy task to create random patterns with only value contrast to work with. While the premise behind The Logic Stone may seem straightforward, these deliberate reductions reveal a tight conceptual and technical approach."
- Christine Wong-Yap, r+d, 2009.

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"[Steven Barich's] newest work -- most of which serves as meditation on Chinese Scholar's Rocks, stones which were “improved” by human hands and meant to be a point of contemplation – all turns on a single word: Apophenia. It means to put it simply, the “experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.” Perhaps sacrilegiously, this is what many would call faith. Whatever you call it, Mr. Barich’s intricate diagrammed meditations are a must see and remind me well of some of the work of another Oakland artist, Chris Duncan. Both utilize conceptualism towards a deep spiritual understanding of our rapidly changing and confusing modern world. It’s a welcome motif, I must say, and completely of our times.

Barich spoke to me during a recent studio visit of being influenced by Martin Puryear’s recent show at SFMOMA towards a certain elemental simplicity. The work he evokes, Scholar’s rocks, was almost always anonymous and the commonality is unmistakable yet the artist’s hand is palpable – that minor tension is what keeps your eyes affixed to the work. I must now note that the artist started out as a photographer and became a drawer by the end of his time as CCAC. I note that because the work here clearly is of the moment and you could tell that even if you didn’t know it was made in the space of a few hours. It is Barich’s sincerest “…hope that the viewer takes the time to consider and meditate on…” the charcoal and graphite drawings at view. I’d take his advice. It’s mine as well. "
- Theo Konrad Auer, The Oakbook, 2009.

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"Drawing is the subject of a fascinating new art exhibit at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in downtown Boone. The exhibit is titled On the Mark! and it features some of the most innovative artists working in pen, pencil and charcoal today...featuring the work of exhibiting artists Steven Robert Barich, Pat Brentano, Cathy Daley, Lori Field, Daphne Gerou, Paul Harcharik, Carol Hopper, Elizabeth Leger, Monika Malewska, Rob Matthews, Heeseop Yoon and Deborah Zlotsky.
- Jeff Eason, Mountain Times, 2009.

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“Animal Magnetism, a sprawling show at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, aims to look at our fanged, feathered, flippered and furry friends in all their wonderfully inhuman complexity. Fifty-four artists offer their own eccentric takes on the animal kingdom. It’s like visiting a zoo of ideas, each picture frame a kind of gilded cage holding a human concept about an animal, rather than the real thing. Even so, you better watch yourself. Some of these creatures are pretty fierce—they might just escape from their canvases and follow you home."
- Greg Stacy, OC Weekly, 2008.