Urban Utopia: Contradictions and Paradoxes with Barry James Goodman

Explore urban contradictions through photography and collage, transforming familiar spaces into layered, imperfect, imagined utopias. Urban Utopia: Contradictions and Paradoxes The urban landscape is the visual wallpaper of everyday life: familiar, constant, and sometimes dystopian, yet often overlooked. Buildings, streets, structures and public spaces become so embedded in our routines that they can appear mundane. Look more closely, however, and the city reveals a rich visual language shaped by architectural forms, patterns, histories and lived experiences. This workshop invites you to explore the city through contradiction and paradox, considering both architectural intent and the ways buildings, movements and environments influence the lives lived within them. Through visual storytelling, you will examine overlooked details of the urban fabric, uncovering narratives and meanings hidden within familiar surroundings. Photographic collage provides a framework for questioning and reimagining these observations. Using repetition, reversal, fragmentation, layering and geometric composition, you will deconstruct and reconstruct photographic imagery to create alternative perspectives on the built environment. This process encourages you to move beyond literal representation and consider how montaged photography can challenge perceptions. Working with repeated images, you are encouraged to draw on your own photographic archives. Through selecting, dissecting, repeating and reconstructing imagery, you will develop a personal interpretation of an urban utopia. All materials are provided. No other preparation is necessary. About Barry Barry James Goodman (b. 1966, Surrey, UK) Architecture and design have always been at the heart of his creative journey - where London, the USA and now Lisbon have been home. What began as a lifelong fascination grew into a successful career in Design, where he honed an eye for structure, balance, and visual storytelling. Eventually, he felt the pull to return to his true passion - creating his own art - and pursued printmaking at the London College of Printing. This shift allowed Barry to build a career rooted in his own imagination, exploring ideas that merge precision with personal expression. His background in design continues to inform everything he creates - from graphic works, prints, drawings and paintings infused with energy and motifs drawn from the urban fabric that surrounds him, be that Brutalism, Modernism or just plain gritty. Many of these works have been exhibited widely in solo and group shows across the globe. Collage Working Club (CWC) is a weekly open workspace for artists working in the medium of paper. Organised in the format of alternate ‘drop in’ sessions and workshops masterclasses, it has both a regular facilitator, whilst also involving the artist community in the sharing of knowledge and skills. Providing materials, education and connections is the primary aim of CWC, and it will do this through the interdisciplinary art of collage as both an art form and a tool for personal growth. O Collage Working Club (CWC) é um espaço de trabalho semanal aberto a artistas que trabalham com o suporte papel. Organizado no formato de sessões alternadas e masterclasses, tem um facilitador regular, ao mesmo tempo que envolve a comunidade de artistas na partilha de conhecimentos e competências.Fornecer materiais, educação e ligações é o principal objetivo do CWC, e fá-lo-á através da interdisciplinaridade da colagem como uma forma de arte e uma ferramenta para o crescimento pessoal. Website