Barbara Takenaga's paintings are often seen as trippy outer space explosions, obsessive dot paintings, or cartoon-like scientific diagrams gone awry. With a restricted, radiating composition and a repetitive process, the images range from still and cosmic to speeding and comic.  For the artist, they are paintings about mortality that are alternately elegiac, evocative and occasionally wacky, with some visual buzz and sensation

Takenaga has shown nationally in a variety of venues.  Recent solo shows include McKenzie Fine Art in New York City, Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco, the CU Museum in Boulder, and Gallery Camino Real in Boca Raton, Florida.  Recent group exhibitions include Big Bang! Paintings for the 21st Century at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA, Nature Anew at the Bell Gallery of Brown University, Decades of Influence at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the 2005 Invitational at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, and Our Brave New Worlds at the Dorsky Curatorial Programs in Long Island City, NY.  Her work has been reviewed in a number of publications including The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the New Yorker, Art in American, and Art News.

Takenaga lives and works in New York City and teaches at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.