Zak Reay-Barry

 

I am a painter, writer and film director. Born in the vibrant yet sun deprived town of Newcastle in the north of England. Painting and drawing has been my thing since I was a wee nipper. I took a hiatus though at sixteen to move down to London to study acting. After working in the business for a few years I left for France to study again in Paris. After spending a year training, drinking wine and eating good cheese I decided not to return to the dreary island I came from, instead staying in Paris where I wrote scripts in French and English and started film directing. In 2022, ten years later, I returned to my first love - painting. Throwing myself into a creative journey, discovering my true voice as an artist. During this time I also co-founded the artists collective Pull-UP, with fellow artists, exhibiting twice with a third event coming up this Autumn. 

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My work can be described as figurative. Though I don't really subscribe to any group of painters. I have never studied, nor considered myself to have come from any school of painting. My work is personal. It reflects the things that interest, compel and scare me. My paintings are brutally childish, yet they are made with brushstrokes packed with everything I have to offer as an artist.