Barry Cleavin


Barry Vickerman Cleavin is a New Zealand fine art printmaker.
Cleavin was born in Dunedin in 1939. He moved to Christchurch in 1963, and studied at the University of Canterbury, where his lecturers included Rudi Gopas and Bill Sutton. He completed a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1966.
He continued his education in Hawaii at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, before returning to the University of Canterbury, where he was senior lecturer in printmaking from 1978 to 1990. Cleavin returned to Dunedin following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, where he set up his studio on Otago Peninsula.
Cleavin has received numerous awards for his art, notably becoming the Fulbright Fellow at The Tamarind Institute of Lithography, Albuquerque in 1983. He received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Canterbury in 2005. He was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts, in the 2001 New Year Honours. Cleavin has represented New Zealand at various international print biennales, in Berlin, Krakow, Ljubljana, Paris, Sapporo, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
Cleavin's work has long concentrated on etching, but in recent years has also included digital printmaking. His works are hallmarked by a wry surrealism and punning titles, using recurring motifs of animal skeletons, silhouetted horsemen, and shadow patterns. Many of his images make poignant political comments. These themes combined in the 1988 book A Series of Allegations or Taking Allegations Seriously, co-written with A. K. Grant and published by Hazard Press.