Howard Barlow is a senior lecturer in the Department of Art + Design at CWU and has been teaching in the department since 2001. He was also an instructor of art at Columbia Basin College from 2004 though 2017. Howard received his MFA in sculpture from CWU in 2000. 

Howard has exhibited work at the Bellevue Art Museum, Museum of Northwest Art, Whatcom Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, Bumbershoot, and numerous galleries in the northwest as well as nationally. His work has been reviewed in publications such as 

Artweek, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Art Ltd, and Seattle PI, among others. He is a past recipient of two Artist Trust Gap Grants and has work in the Microsoft art collection. Howard is a 2006 founding member and current Vice President of Operations at PUNCH Gallery (now PUNCH projects).

Howard Barlow creates work independently but also frequently collaborates with his wife, Lorraine Barlow. As stated by Matthew Kangas in Art Ltd: “Lorraine and Howard Barlow…have emerged from one of the most interesting art departments in the state, Central Washington University in Ellensburg. A kind of UC Davis outpost of funky figuration, off-color humor, and Surrealist-inspired painting and sculpture, CWU has produced numerous startlingly talented artists whose subjects often reflect their immediate environment. The Barlows adapt the morbid, death-driven side of Surrealism—Max Ernst, early Dalí, late Magritte—to bizarre combinations of sport-hunting memorabilia, gun lore, taxidermy, all frequently covered by crocheted or knit wool yarn. The husband-wife artist couple twists and tweaks American lifestyles with eccentric yet serious alterations.”