They function as cutting commentaries on our consumer culture by wittily appropriating images from advertising's past. In addition to making paintings, Barminski has also produced CD- ROMs that not only animate his paintings, but also give life and voice to the characters of his imagination. These works inform each other. The CD-ROM, among other things, provides viewers with a virtual gallery, an archive of Barminski's work. This gallery does not simulate the walls of the current exhibition, but rather the paintings become the architecture through which one travels.
Viewers can stop and look and click on an image.
In the past Barminski has carefully applied layers of paint to his canvases to create his imagery. In these new works, for the first time he is using the technique of photo-transfer. He begins with a photographed reality. Barminski's photographically derrived images of gas stations, grenades, and cartoon characters serve as the background to his compositions, upon which other symbols, words and images drawn from advertising rest. In both cases, Barminski strings his letters across the canvas in a non-linear fashion, enabling the viewer to construct many alternate words.