Robert Barry was born in New York in 1936. He lives and works in New Jersey.

Robert Barry is considered one of the pioneer and the most representative artist of the Conceptual Art movement. Around the middle of the '60s, Barry starts investigating the space around the canvas as well as the space within and the placement of the work in the exhibition context as a primary component of the artistic operation.

The artist questions the limits and the true nature of perception, our senses possibilities in relation with often unknown and intangible elements. It has always been for him the very act of perceiving, rather than the object of perception, to be interesting and meaningful. After years of experimentation where the artist used and experiment with the most varied media (ultrasonic sounds, inert gases and magnetism) to conduct his artistic research, in the early '70s Barry decides to focus on the word, as a unique vehicle of meanings and privileged tool of communication.
The word can be painted on a canvas, directly on the wall, printed on paper, projected on slides or carved. Fundamental for the artist is the specialization of the word, the relationship between this and the emptiness around it. Faced with a great variety of meanings and signifiers, the fundamental constant of all his research remains the fact that between his mind and the public's gaze, there is a passing of ideas and concepts, not pre-established and intentional messages: a point of arrival and a departure that becomes the real creative engine of his work. To Robert Barry “art is a language and has roots in the language”.