Peter Barker at Urban Coffee

Off to Smithdown Rd again, that’s twice this week I’ve left the city centre, gosh! But its always nice to visit this friendly cafe with its LIssue gallery. The latest exhibition has paintings by Peter Barker, photographs by Joan Evans and Mike Badgers small sculptures.
Mike is famous for his fascinating sculptures of cars, ships, planes etc. made from recycled bits of metal. He was also a founder member of the La’s, I didn’t know that until I visited his website where you can see examples of his work.
In the back room there are Joan’s photographs of Liverpool and New York. I thought the NY ones had a timeless quality, the bustling streets and tall apartment blocks with those ubiquitous external fire-escapes.
The main area of the cafe has Peter’s paintings, all oil on canvas. There are some geometric shapes like the one pictured here which is called ‘Where’s the Point’, some others are similar to the landscapes of the surrealists inhabited by strange looking people and objects. Also a couple look a bit sci-fi with a glowing moon hanging over a dark atmospheric landscape. ‘Coffeemoon’ which is hanging above the archway is a good example of this. All the works are for sale at reasonable prices.