Marilynn Grant Barr
THE FIRST SHOE COLLECTION
Is How We Walk Who We Are?

Marilynn Grant Barr’s The First Shoe Collection features life-sized ceramic shoes that merge utility, history, and creativity—begging the question “Is how we walk who we are?”

February 2- February 23, 2019.
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 2, 2019, 6-9pm.

Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune Street, NYC.
Gallery hours: Wednesday to Sunday 1-6 pm.

“Besides protection from the elements…” Barr writes, “Shoes continue to attract commoners and celebrities alike—you, me, ‘Carrie Bradshaw,’ Parineeti Chopra, Whoopi Goldberg, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Wendy Williams, and more to a sumptuous footwear feast to wear, collect, and display.”

“Every shoe has a story” Barr states. Inspired by a vintage, wooden shoe last liberated from a second-hand store, Barr made The First Shoe (a pink spiral design with cerulean lace and a chunky heel ceramic shoe) that harkened to “my love of carnival cotton candy.” Then dozens of sketches followed, which served as blueprints for a collection influenced by music, art, history, … and continues to grow.

Barr is a practicing artist based in Greensboro, NC. She is an alumna of the high school of Music & Art, NYC where she majored in art and the University of North Carolina where she earned her Bachelor and Masters degrees. Her works have been included in juried exhibits and she is a recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Regional Artist Project Grant.

Barr works to provoke conversations of “iconic imagery that imprinted your style,” adding, “I hope to entertain and intrigue audiences; to initiate chatter about dying industries; answer questions about who we are, and discuss, though vintage is currently buried in the digital-divide, can it be, the new kid on the block? I wonder.”

The First Shoe Collection—Is how we walk who we are? I wonder by Marilynn Grant Barr.