“We were in Durban, South Africa, with a few spare hours to kill and walked into an art gallery exhibiting a body of work called “Polymorphic” We were immediately entranced by the images before us. They had a lifelike feel, each exhibiting a humanistic quality in an abstract construct that evoked a desire to find out what they were and more importantly who they were by. We were surprised to find out that the artist was English, albeit now a resident of South Africa. His name was Oliver Barnett. This was an artist who was very different and whose approach to his compositions moved us to the extent that we wanted to represent him and showcase his wonderfully abstract images to the English public.

Oliver began his artistic journey of discovery over a decade ago as he travelled through the remote areas of Northern Mali, Niger and Chad. His journey’s opened his eyes to the beauty and austerity of nature, awakening in him an appreciation of the diversity, interaction and complexity of the natural world we all live in yet take for granted. Taking shapes from the environment, Oliver breaks down the form of various objects and then reassembles them into abstract compositions each with a unique yet lifelike appearance. In many ways, Oliver Barnett’s images mimic nature itself in the evolutionary approach he takes to create his art.

The portfolios of work we are proud to represent are entitled “Polymorphic” & “Cosmochrome”. This term refers to a biological phenomenon in which organisms of the same species develop distinctly different characteristic in accordance with their environments. Oliver, working with multiple images, deconstructs their form, reassembling them into abstracted composites. Many of the images resemble African tribal masks, a strong feature from Olivers early travels through Africa. Each of Oliver Barnetts Polymorphic images develop a language that not only allows the viewer to interact with nature in an abstract plane but also allows the imagination to freely explore what they perceive they are looking at. In essence, it’s a form of scotoma with the eye seeing what it wants to see and interpret. Each image within the Polymorphic series not only shows the range of life in the natural world but also natures vivid colours and textures. We are pleased to offer these stunning, limited edition images in various sizes. Regardless of the size chosen, each one makes a statement and are beautifully printed and framed in-house by the Brett Gallery.

Each image in the Polymorphic series comes with the exclusive Brett Gallery, leather and embossed certificate of authenticity personally signed by Oliver Barnett. WE trust you will enjoy each images as much as we have compiling this very unique and exclusive body of work called “Polymorphic”.”

– Paul Brett, Director

Oliver Barnett Biography

Oliver Barnett is an English photographic artist living in Cape Town, South Africa.

Having emigrated from the UK to South Africa in 2007, It didn’t take long to fall under the influence of the wild elemental scenery of the Cape, so stark in contrast to the beautiful but essentially manicured English countryside in which Oliver Barnett grew up. The move prompted a new creative path guided by valuable insights into the self-regulating intelligence of nature and the desire for an enhanced participation in the unfolding cycles we are bound to.

Many hours have been spent exploring these new lands, Oliver taught himself photography and started to learn about the unique diversity of the Cape floral kingdom. This led to the development of adaptive editing techniques to create images that offer a narrative to a transforming sensory perception of place within the land. The resulting body of work intends to provide tools to connect to a collective perception of the environment and prompt new ways to encourage the seeds of recovered ecological sensibility occurring within human consciousness..

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