Cheryl Barnett

Cheryl Barnett is a fifth generation Californian, who was raised in the Central Valley, but received her cultural awareness and art education during time spent both visiting and later living in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Numerous trips to Europe solidified her desire to dedicate her life to art and art education.  She lived in Vienna, Austria for a summer studying Art History.  She then focused on producing and exhibiting bronze sculptures while earning both a BA and MA degree in Fine Art.  Becoming a Patina Specialist at Artworks Bronze Foundry in Berkeley, CA opened the doors to exhibiting in San Francisco art galleries. This later coincided with the opportunity to become an Art Professor teaching Sculpture, Design, and 20th Century Art History.  She maintained her sculpture studio next to the foundry, while teaching at Merced College for a total of 35 years prior to retirement.  She continued to live at both locations, creating small bronzes as teaching demonstrations for her sculpture students and spending the other half of her time in production on large pieces at the Berkeley foundry.  During the Pandemic she returned to model building concepts for larger steel fabrication suitable for outdoor gardens or public art.

Barnett states, “The human form has such universal identification, complexity & mystery.  Personal relationships, self-portrait, or ancient archetypal mythology hold my fascination. I search to capture the strength of the feminine mystique by creating an open structural illusion of volume or mass by twisting, turning or folding form into an alluring gestural statement.” 

Barnett’s abstract figurative sculptures utilize both the traditional lost wax bronze casting method and the current laser/ 3d printer technology for reproduction enlargements.  Her works range in scale from small to life-size and unique (one-of-a-kind) casts to limited editions of 7, or 12 for small gesture sketches.  Edition copies allow the artist to keep the original for her personal collection for retrospective exhibits and for future public enlargements.  Over 450 of her works are now in private & corporate collections in 11 countries worldwide. 

Coachella Valley locals might remember Barnett's art from The Eleonore Austerer Gallery, who represented her for two decades (from 1990 until its closing in 2011, when Eleonore passed), first in her San Francisco gallery and then in her Palm Desert location here on El Paseo.