My name is Michael Barrett and I was born on October 13, 1970 in Burlington, Vermont. I studied at the University of Vermont and graduated in 1992 with a studio art major. My painting instructor Frank Hewitt influenced my early works there, along with other art professors Linda McIntryre, Ed Owre, Bill Davison and Tom Brenner. During my senior year at UVM, I completed two large projects: A ceiling mural in a Burlington apartment and an interconnecting series of fifteen paintings called the Klondike Kaleidoscope.

I moved to Chicago in 1993, and spent a year and four months experimenting with different painting styles. I did a whole series of paintings on cardboard, using boxes from a nearby bakery, mostly because I couldn't afford canvas and wood at the time, and cardboard was a cheap way for me to be able to paint. I eventually got some canvas and did a number of large works near the end of 1993, and had a show of my art in Wicker Park at a co-op gallery called "Gallery 1633" at 1633 Damen Avenue.

I moved back to Vermont in 1994 and painted sporadically, incorporating spraypaint, tar, silkscreens and more abstract methods of producing work. I showed my work again at the South End Art Hop in Burlington, VT at Griffin Graphics in the Maltex Building, where I began selling some pieces. In the Fall of 1997 I moved to New York City. I currently reside in Brooklyn, where I have been painting for the past few years. I recently had a show at The Room, a bar in Soho, where I sold 13 paintings. Recently, I completed a 6' x 5' commissioned piece for a bar called ICE in Manhattan (Canal and Washington St in NYC) which was unveiled on Wednesday, October 11th, 2000. Icebar Painting Right now, i'm plugging away on a new series of paintings, which you can check out some photos of here. New Paintings