Barry Cawston

Cawston takes us on a surreal trip across countries and continents; drawing us in with his mysterious storytelling until it becomes almost impossible to remember that the imagery is found by him and not somehow imagined by us.

Barry Cawston – Tibetan Cowboy

We are led, primarily, into this eerie state by Cawston’s deft composition. Whether we find ourselves drifting aimlessly through North American States or looking through the menu of a Russian Diner we do so in the alone of dreams that is never quite fully alone. We are following someone. Or perhaps we are waiting for them. It is difficult to be sure. But their absence is always felt as a heavy presence in Cawston’s uncanny world.

And Cawston’s eye for intense colours and cinematic lighting leads us yet deeper into our dreamsate. He is meticulous with this rich detailing; no chink in the curtains allows reality to creep back in. Though we are hesitant we are compelled to walk down unsettling corridors and climb moonlit stairs – until we reach the Tibetan Cowboy who is no more plausible than the landscape he has grown out of but may at least know what we are to imagine next.

Cawston is an internationally renowned artist, who has won several prestigious awards including the Chairman’s Choice Award at the RWA Photographic Open in 2008, and British Open Art awards in 2012 and 2013. He has exhibited all over the world including solo shows in France, Russia, Sweden and Belgium, Toronto and New York.