Gareth Barlow

In Share The Air, I bring together two threads of my practice, portraiture and birds, to explore what it means to inhabit connection. Birds have long featured in my work as symbols, companions, and guides. Through ongoing engagement with Māori pūrākau, alongside my own ancestral grounding in Celtic mythology, I reflect on how birds are situated within these distinct knowledge systems; as kaitiaki and messengers within te ao Māori, and as symbolic intermediaries within Celtic traditions, each offering different ways of understanding our relationships to place, story, and one another. Their presence encourages reflection on how humans might learn from their resilience, grace, and instinctive harmony with the world around them.

Portraiture, too, has been central to my practice. Over the years, I have had the privilege of meeting and painting people whose stories, presence, and mana have stayed with me through our time working together. In these encounters, we quite literally share the air; exchanging energy, insight, and something of ourselves, leaving behind traces of connection. By bringing people and birds together in this exhibition, I aim to honour both the human subjects and the avian ones, each offering, in different ways, reflections on how we might coexist, endure, and belong.

At its heart, Share The Air is about connection: to each other, to the natural world, and to the stories that span generations. These works invite us to see birds and people not as separate subjects, but as companions and teachers who share this land, this sky, and the fragile balance that sustains us all. They call us to notice, to listen, and to take part in the ongoing dialogue of life that surrounds us.