Philly artist Joe Barker, the late rapper DMX’s dad, has an exhibit at Hyatt Centric

Longtime Philadelphia watercolor artist Joe Barker is holding court in the lobby of the Hyatt Centric Center City.

He is the featured creator for the hotel’s monthly Maker Series, which presents the work of local artists with the goal of raising their profile in the city. On this recent evening, a lively happy hour crowd of showgoers has gathered in front of Barker’s cheery paintings of Philadelphia landmarks: Boathouse Row, Chris’ Jazz Cafe, and Rittenhouse Square Park; he painted more than a dozen watercolors for the exhibit that will run through the end of February.

Barker has a lot to say. He’s the world’s best wingman. Ask any of his friends looking for love. Yes, his fedora is funky but don’t be fooled by the pile of locs erupting from a hole cut in the top that’s hiding a receding hairline.

Oh, and by the way Sister, he said looking directly at me, “I’m DMX’s father.”

Word? As in the late Earl Simmons of “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem” and “Party Up” fame.

Barker nods as if to say, “if you don’t know, now you know.” But I knew. It was the reason I went to the Hyatt Centric. Still, I was surprised — given the estranged relationship between the father and his son who died almost two years ago — that Barker started a conversation about DMX. It was not well-known they were father and son. Barker prefers it that way. As the night went on, his bluster became reflective: “Earl and I were close. Real close.”

While DMX was growing up in Yonkers, N.Y., during the 1980s, Barker was painting Philadelphia scenes on a Rittenhouse Square street corner, becoming quasi-famous. In 1989, David Marshall, developer of the Rittenhouse Hotel, commissioned Barker to paint 99 watercolors of Philadelphia scenes, one for each of the hotel’s rooms, where they still hang. In 1991, Barker’s images appeared in Meridian Bank’s “Days of Hope” calendar, which raised $75,000 for unhoused people. “I’m still proud of that,” Barker told me. “That’s a big deal.”

“He’s the sidewalk artist at 18th and Sansom whose bright, bold, kinetic, jazzy watercolors of street scenes should be New Yorker covers,” wrote Maralyn Lois Polak in a 1991 Inquirer profile. Barker was 39 at the time.

Barker grew up in Alabama where he began painting as a child. He couldn’t play because of asthma, and painting kept him still. In the late 1960s, Barker moved to Yonkers and in 1971, DMX was born. Barker told Stephan Salisbury in a 1989 Inquirer article that “the birth of his first son got me serious about painting.” He started another relationship, married, and had two more children. Trying to support a family as a street artist was tough, and his family lost their home. He moved to Philadelphia in the late 1970s and “it wasn’t long before the city embraced me.”

His talent is giving Philly’s gritty neighborhoods, streetscapes, and buildings a fairy-tale finish. He starts with a light pencil of ice skaters at City Hall, shoppers bustling at the Italian Market, or Mummers at the New Year’s Day parade. He fills in the stark lines and stick figures with bright watercolors and acrylics. He has painted just about every notable building in the city from the Comcast Building to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, the city’s first Black Masonic Temple. His paintings have landed in the hands of Fred Rogers and Martin Landau. Former district attorney Lynne Abraham owns an original Joe Barker. “Most of the law firms in Philly, a lot of the brokerage firms, real estate firms, they all have watercolors by me,” Barker said.

Though Barker’s work was widely commissioned, he struggled for a long time, paying bills one watercolor at a time. Since the 2000s, he has hit his stride. He works with real estate agents to paint new homeowners’ purchases and lots of wedding portraits. He sold his work for years at events like the Manayunk Arts Festival but carrying the art and standing on his feet for hours is hard work. He’s 71 now, shoot. These days, Barker enjoys painting flowers in the backyard of his Mount Laurel home that he shares with his second wife.

He prefers client work to exhibits, but when James Zeleniak of Punch Media asked Barker to show his work at the Makers Series, he agreed. “I just painted and painted,” Barker said. “It’s been nice seeing my work on the walls.” Don’t get it twisted, Barker said, this show isn’t part of a major comeback.

“I keep working,” Barker said. “I keep painting and I pray a lot. That’s just the way it is. It’s a constant hustle. There are no breaks. I just keep painting.”

Joe Barker’s exhibit will run through Feb. 28 at the Hyatt Centric, 1620 Chancellor St. The paintings are for sale.