Ira Barkoff’s paintings are Zen-like landscapes whose tranquil stillness reflects a location’s essence. Barkoff seeks to “portray a sense of vastness” and instill feelings of awe in his viewers. Furthering his exploration of the abstract, Barkoff paints in his studio, rather than outside on location, to create harmonious landscapes from his visual and emotional memories. The Impressionist-turned-Expressionist painter is inspired by the atmospheric qualities of works by Claude Monet and J.M.W. Turner and cites Gerhard Richter as a more contemporary influence.

Artist Statement
Looking at a blank canvas can be both exciting and frightening at the same time. Most of the time exciting wins out and I plunge in. My hope is to transcend the natural world by bringing to life something deeper and more elusive than outward appearances. A given group of trees or a field is imbued with something greater and more moving than the specifics I see before me. What it is I cannot put into words, but I know, it is the only thing worth putting into my paintings. You could cast me as a modern-day Luminist-Tonalist-Impressionist. Monet’s Water Lilies have been a big influence, along with the landscape painter Wolf Kahn.
My most successful pictures are not those that are the most accurate in terms of nature, but are the ones where the state of my consciousness allowed me to translate my feelings – my deepest inner feelings – to the canvas. When I get into this altered state, it’s just a fantastic feeling. I think most artists paint in order to get into this altered state. I know I do. Hopefully, what comes out is a perceptual poem.

Education
Ira Barkoff received his B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He also attended the Art Students League, where he studied with Robert Brackman and Robert Beverly Hale, NY.

Solo Exhibition
2021 Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, New York
2014 Circle of Influence: Barkoff & the Washington Art Association, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
2012 Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, New York
2011 Brick Walk Gallery, West Hartford CT 2006-2012
2008 Munson Gallery, Chatham MA 2003-2012
2007 Ober Gallery, Kent, CT

Juried Exhibitions
2010 Fifteen Artists, One Exhibition – Western Connecticut State University, Danbury CT
1998 Three Rivers Art Festival Judge: Sheena Wagstaff, Director of Collections-
Frick Museum, Pittsburg, PA
1994 First Street Gallery: National Competition, Juror: Wayne Thiebau, New York, NY
1992 Art of Northeast USA, Silvermine, Juror: Eliza Rathbone, Curator Phillips Collection,
1991 Aetna Gallery: Curated Realism, Hartford, CT
1989 Stamford Museum: Annual Competition, Juror: Kenworth Moffet, former curator of Twentieth Century Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Stamford, CT
1981 1983, 1985-87, Sharon Creative Arts Foundation, Sharon, CT
1979 Grand Central Galleries: Annual Competition, New York, NY
1974 Lever House, American Artists Professional League, New York, NY
1972 Marietta College: Mainstream ‘72, Marietta, OH
1971 Allied Artists Annual, New York, NY

Selected Collections
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
Still Mountain Center, Kent, CT
American Home Products, New York, NY
Pfizer Corporation, New York, NY
Phoenix Home Life Insurance, Hartford, CT
Dawes Music, New York, NY
Anda/Scottie, New York, NY
Durham Ziff Collection, New York, NY
Five Point Gallery Collection, Chappaqua, NY
Alan Greenspan, former Chairman, Federal Reserve, Washington, DC
John Gillis, Architect, New York, NY
Jerry Della Femina Partners, New York, NY
Pioneer Group, Boston, MA
Unilever Headquarters, Greenwich, CT
Nelson A. Rockefeller Jr. & Amy Taylor, NJ

Teaching
Washington Art Association, Washington, CT