Born in Nasarawa state, Barry Yusufu is a self-taught visual artist from the north-central part of Nigeria. From a tender age, Barry found art to be a medium to express his thoughts, emotions, ideals, ideas, concerns, and passions. He is a traditional artist who uses dying art media ranging from charcoals, coffee, paints, papier mache, collage, and graphite to tell stories using model dramatization, colors, and a great deal of imagination. His style of art is Contemporary Expressionism which he calls Kolo Art meaning madness in a sane way. As a traditional artist, he has participated in several local exhibitions, most notably being the Felebration Art Competition and Exhibition 2019 and Action Aid’s Art4Development. His style surpasses conforming to a norm, hence being experimental about his art; working through a wide range of mediums while paying rapt attention and consciousness to his freedom to express. He hopes to influence the world with the humanity, emotions, lifestyle, and personality embedded in his art. Barry is also the leader of an art movement called “The Kolony”, a brotherhood of young contemporary Nigerian artists.
His most recent work titled ‘In Trance’ tells the story of the African woman, the pressure she bears in a male dominant society while living for the sake of her children. Barry also uses sculptures to tell stories with dying art mechanisms like paper maché, collages, colours, charcoal and graphite. He hopes to influence the world with the humanity, emotions, lifestyle and personality embedded in his artwork.