Jacques Barry was born in 1943 in Limoges. In 1972, he became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Étienne, a position he held until June 2006. He currently lives and works in both Paris and Saint-Étienne.
Barry has exhibited his work regularly, with over sixty solo exhibitions across France, Europe, and the United States, as well as more than fifty group exhibitions worldwide. His work has been showcased in cities such as Cairo, Tangier, and Casablanca; Los Angeles and Quebec; Thessaloniki and Madrid; Ouagadougou and Saint-Julien-Molin-Molette; Paris and Vienna; and Dakar and Houston.
One of his most famous pieces, a rhinoceros sculpture, was displayed at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It has also been featured on an orientation table in Saint-Fons and appeared on posters for the Rive-de-Gier Jazz Festival, which has since been renamed the Rhino Jazz(s) Festival.
Jacques Barry’s artistic reach is boundless. In 1999, three of his paintings journeyed into space with French astronaut Michel Tognini, orbiting the Earth eighty times during the 95th mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia.