It’s often said that life imitates art, and vice versa. In Cory Bilicko and Tony Barrera’s new exhibit “Photo-synthesis,” it’s artist who imitates artist.
Bilicko and Barrera are vastly different from one another, but you wouldn’t know that by walking through their gallery. Bilicko, energetic and outgoing, has curated and participated in over a dozen exhibits, museums and galleries during his 13 years of paint and collage work.
Barrera, a quiet and thoughtful Long Beach native, has been expressing his thoughts on love, depression and life through photography since he was a child. He describes his work as “moody and emotional” and photos from throughout a lifetime of shooting, as well as newly made images, are on display in his first exhibit.
“I was so inspired by his photos and loved his photos so much that I wanted to reinterpret them,” Bilicko said. “I wanted to use them as muses or inspiration pieces, so that’s where the idea came from. And then I thought, well, if I reinterpret his, he should reinterpret mine.”
There are 26 pieces of art intricately placed on the walls at the Ephemeral gallery, all of the pieces cleverly playing off one another. Bilicko and Barrera began the creative process shortly before the pandemic and spent around three years creating and recreating pieces for the show.
It was Bilicko who approached Barrera with the idea of working together. He had experimented with the idea of imitation once before, in an exhibit at Greenly Art Space in Signal Hill. The exhibit featured 30 artists and children recreating vintage postcards, and the concept of where artists draw inspiration from continued to intrigue him.
Bilicko searched for the perfect artist to explore this idea with, and after a year of searching, he found Barrera’s work and immediately pitched the show.
“I was instantly really excited,” Barrera said. “I knew I always wanted to collaborate with an artist but didn’t know how and the moment he brought up the idea I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is brilliant.’”
The two artists spent the following couple of years meeting up, sharing each other’s work, spending time alone with the pieces and reinterpreting them in their preferred mediums. Barrera’s photograph of a woman standing in front of Acres of Books, a now-closed Long Beach bookstore, is transformed by Bilicko into a punk rock-style poster with bright pink and black strokes of paint.
“Conformity,” a quadtych of Bilicko’s—a four-quadrant painting with vastly different colors and patterns splattered on each square—inspired Barrera to conduct a photoshoot for each quadrant. The bright blue lines of paint become a rain cloud hovering over Barrera’s subject; splatters of yellow paint become stars in Barrera’s living room.
“Cory would explain to me what was going on in his mind while he was painting them and it was very easy and cool to see that in the work and play off of that,” Barrera said. “There were a couple of times where I kind of just tried to do my own thing from it and be conscious of what his [Bilicko’s] emotions were during it and kind of try to flip it on its head a little bit.”
Tony Barrera and Cory Bilicko stand near some of their work that inspired the other to interpret it in their perfered medium for their series “Photo-Synthesis” at the Ephemeral Gallery in Downtown Long Beach on Dec. 6, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Cory Bilicko’s painting, “Conformity,” is diaplyed on a wall near the four photos from Tony Barrera that helped inspire the composition at the Ephemeral Gallery in Downtown Long Beach on Dec. 6, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
A series of four photos by Tony Barrera adorn a corner wall at the Ephemeral Gallery in Downtown Long Beach on Dec. 6, 2022 for the “Photo-Synthesis” series. These 4 works help inspire Cory Bilicko’s work “Conformity.” (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Tony Barrera (right) and Cory Bilicko stand near some of their work that inspired the other to interpret it in their perfered medium for their series “Photo-Synthesis” at the Ephemeral Gallery in Downtown Long Beach on Dec. 6, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
Barrera chose five paintings to use as muses. He would sit with them, think about the emotions behind them and draw ideas in his notebook, he said. Once the photos were taken, he would hang them on his wall for a few days and often go back and make “endless” changes.
Bilicko was tasked with going through hundreds of photos to find his inspiration. He would choose certain photos, go back and change his mind, think about how they made him feel and Barrera’s story behind each one before finally adding his own twist to them.
“[Barrera] is just very easygoing, communicative, a good listener and just very pleasant to work with,” Bilicko said of his artistic counterpart. “During this whole process, especially during the opening reception Friday night, as I was reflecting on the show, I just kept thinking, ‘I’m so glad that Tony is the artist that I invited to collaborate with me.’”
The two-year pause during which the artists created and recreated work was a much larger time frame than they were used to.
“It’s kind of cathartic actually,” Barrera said. “I’m ready to put it behind me and move forward.”
While they may be ready to move on from “Photo-synthesis,” the two artists already have plans to create another show together. The numerous pieces that were created but didn’t make it into their current show will be displayed next month in the same space.
Ephemeral is a new gallery in Downtown Long Beach located at 375 N. Promenade. The space is owned and curated by MADE by Millworks, a gift boutique and art gallery that showcases work from artists who live within 25 miles of the store.
“Photo-synthesis” will be on display through the month of December.
