The eldest son of the great American painter and printmaker Will Barnet, Peter Barnet grew up in the center of the NYC art world and was privileged to meet many of the most famous abstract-expressionists and pop artists. Peter's primary aesthetic was formed by watching his father paint and teach. He also studied with Hans Hoffman, Esteban Vincente, Hale Woodruff, and many other artists.

Peter first began to exhibit his work in the late 1950's in Provincetown, Mass.

From 1960 to 1965 he was represented by the 10/4 Gallery on 2nd Avenue and 12th Street in NYC. From 1976 to 1995 during the booming Soho years he had a series of one-man shows at the Chuck Levitan Gallery at the corner of Grand Street and West Broadway.

His work has been reviewed in Arts, Art News, Art in America, The Newark Star Ledger and The Village Voice.

The most recent show of Barnet's has been at Montclair State in New Jersey where he has taught painting since 1965.

Peter describes his aesthetic as a mix of the wonderful awareness of composition, structure and space that he learned from his dad, along with a nip of irreverent unconscious recklessness picked up from being around the abstract-expressionists and the pop artists. He also has a great love of classic Japanese prints, children's art, fairy tales and illustrations that involve dogs. wolves, coyotes and foxes.