EDUCATION

Art Students League-Studied with Robert Brackman and Robert Beverly Hale, NY. 

Pratt Institute, NY, B.F.A.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2007        Ober Gallery, Kent, CT

2005        Claudia Heath Fine Art, Charlotte, NC

2005        Walker-Kornbluth Gallery, Fair Lawn, NJ

2005        Gallery Du Soleil, Tarrytown, NY

2004        Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, MA

2004        William Mooreson Gallery, Kent, CT

2003        William Mooreson Gallery, Kent, CT

2002        Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, MA

2001        Norfolk Library, Norfolk, CT

1999        New London Art Society, New London, CT

1999        Berkshire Art Gallery, Great Barrington, MA

1997        Town Hall, Sharon, CT

1996        Good News Gallery, Woodbury, CT

1996        Washington Art Association, Washington, CT

1995        Connecticut Commission on the Arts – Hartford Showcase

1994        Legacy Art, Miami, FL

1991        Clapp and Tuttle Gallery, Woodbury, CT

1990        Five Point Gallery, East Chatham, NY

1990        Cornwall Library Association, Cornwall, CT

1989        Francesca Anderson Gallery, Boston, MA

1989        Oliver Wolcott Library, Litchfield, CT

1986        Durham Ziff Gallery, New York, NY

1986        Moviehouse Studio Gallery, Millerton, NY

1984        Durham Ziff Gallery, New York, NY

1984        Somerstown Gallery, Somers, NY

1977        Galleria Genova, Chappaqua, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2006        Morrison Gallery, Kent, CT

2006        Cavalier Gallery, Greenwich, CT

2006     Ober Gallery, Kent, CT

2006     Munson Gallery, Chatham, Cape Cod, MA

2006     Brick Wall Gallery, West Hartford, CT

2006     Claudia Heath Fine Art, Charlotte, MA

2006     Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox MA

2005     City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT

2005     Dragonfly Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2005     Munson Gallery, Chatham, Cape Cod, MA

2005     Hoor-Ashby Gallery, New York, NY

2005     Cavalier Gallery, New York, NY

2005     Kaller Gallery, Bethesda, MD
2005     Gallery Du Soleil, Tarrytown, NY

2004     Cavalier Gallery, New York, NY

2004     Munson Gallery, Chatham, Cape Cod, MA

2004     Dragonfly Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2003     Dragonfly Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA                         

2003     Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, MA  

2003     Munson Gallery, Chatham, Cape Cod, MA

2003     Cavalier Gallery, New York, NY

2002     Dragon Fly Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2002     New York Paris Kent Gallery, Kent, CT

2002     Cavalier Gallery, Greenwich, CT

2001     Bacheller-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, CT

2001     Riester/Greenberg Gallery, New Preston, CT

2000     Cavalier Gallery, Greenwich, CT

1995     Silo Gallery, New Milford, CT: ConnectiComp

1994     Linda McAdoo Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1992     Grand Central “Romantic Realism” show, New York, NY

1992     Hilsdale College “Romantic Realism” show, MI

1992     Harris Gallery, West Cornwall, CT

1991     Five Points Gallery, East Chatham, NY

1991     Connoisseur Gallery, Rhineback, NY

1991     Ellen/Baker Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1984     Mussavi Art Center, New York, NY

1983     Gregg Galleries, National Arts Club, New York, NY

1983     Atelier Studio Gallery, New Milford, CT

1981     Martha Whitt Gallery, Louisville, KY

1976     Merrill Lynch Galleries, New York, NY

1975     Galleria Genova, Chappaqua, NY

1975     Robbins Gallery, South Orange, NJ

1974-1993        Birdsnest Gallery, Bar Harbor, ME

1974     Thompson Gallery, New York, NY

1974     Nantucket Gallery, Nantucket, MA

1971     Madison 90 Gallery, New York, NY

JURIED EXHIBITIONS

1998     Three Rivers Art Festival, Pittsburgh, PA

Judge:  Sheena Wagstaff, Director of Collections-Frick Museum

1994     First Street Gallery, New York, NY: National Competition

Juror:  Wayne Thiebau

1992     Art of Northeast USA, Silvermine

Juror:  Eliza Rathbone, Curator Phillips Coillection

1991     Aetna Gallery, Hartford, CT: Curated Realism

1989     Stamford Museum, Stamford, CT: Annual Competition

Juror:  Kenworth Moffet, former curator of Twentieth Century Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1981, 1983, 1985-1987 Sharon Creative Arts Foundation, Sharon, CT

1979     Grand Central Galleries, New York, NY: Annual Competition

1974     Lever House, American Artists Professional League, New York, NY

1972     Marietta College, Marietta, OH: Mainstream ‘72

1971     Allied Artists Annual, New York, NY

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, 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 Points Gallery Collection, Chappaqua, NY

Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve, Washington, D.C.

John Gillis, Architect, New York, NY

Jerry Della Femina Partners, New York, NY

Pioneer Group, Boston, MA

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Washington Art Association, CT

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2007, June 7     Marsden Epworth, “New Works” Compass, The Lakeville Journal

2007, June         Laurel Tuohy, “The Landscape of the Imagination,” Litchfield County Times Magazine

2007, May         Susan Barnett, “The Art in Transition: Ira Barkoff and the Art of the Subconscious,” County and Abroad Magazine

2007, May         Richard J. Boyle, “Ira Barkoff – Contemporary Romantic”

2005                     Phyllis Boros, “The New Landscape,” Connecticut Post

2005                     Painted Poetry, “Portrait of Ira Barkoff,” Artist Magazine

2004, Oct 1       Jamie Ferris, “Landscapes of Imagination,” Housatonic Living

2004                     Virginia Reiser, The Munson Gallery Cape Arts Review Annual Issue

2003, August    Asa Fitch, "The Colors of Cornwall", Litchfield County Times

2001, Aug 19   William Zimmer, Review, Sunday New York Times

2001, May         Richard Boyle, "The Paintings of Ira Barkoff", The Owl, Norfolk Library

1996, June         Best of Oil Painting, Rockport Publishing, Rockport, MA

1996, Feb 23    Allistair Haight, Litchfield County Times

1995, Spring     Joe Anna Arnett, Art Ideas [photo only]

1990, May 10  Herbert S. Whitman, The Lakeville Journal and Millerton News

1987, June 18   Herbert S. Whitman, “Painting Cornwall,”  The Lakeville Journal and Millerton News 

1986, July 10    “Barkoff in Millerton,” The Lakeville Journal and Millerton News       

1984, June 16   Claude LeSuer, “Mussavi’s Antidote to Official Chic,” Art/Speak, New York, NY

1984, June         Marilu Knode, “Diversity at Mussavi,” Manhattan Arts

1983, May 24  Frank Merkling, “The Colors of Late Spring,” The News Times

1982, July 15    Frank Merkling, “The Colors of Late Spring,” The Lakeville Journal

1973, March     Joan Mitchell Blumenthal, American Artist

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.  That is, I paint the landscape, which for me is what it’s all about.  The landscape represents nature and contemplating nature is being in touch with God.  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.

“The landscape means either what I see before me or from my mind’s eye.  When I paint a mountain or a tree, I’m not trying to capture the mountain or tree literally (that’s what a photograph does).  I’m trying to express my inner spirit in the painting – to transcend the physical to reach the spiritual.

“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.”