Courtesy of Brandt-Roberts Galleries
The Brandt-Roberts Galleries’ next exhibition will feature Christopher Burk: Deluge, a new series of distinct, austere oil paintings by the artist.
Burk, who is known for representation of stillness in urban landscape, ventures into new territory with this series of flood paintings.
“These compositions are void of the representations of human life that are typically signifiers of his work - an alleyway with a lone dumpster, a house with a single lit window,” a press release from the gallery states. “However, these new works still continue Burk’s interest and investigation into human environments.”
The series depicts seas of browns, greens, and blues with tinges of unexpected color - salmon, mint, and periwinkle, and reminders of the world’s increasing climate disasters.
“Burk presents what at first appears to be abstract compositions. Upon further inspection, fields of color become water escaping its usual boundaries; blocks of earth emerge from muddy waters; ghostly shapes reveal inundated manmade paths,” the release states. “What Burk so cleverly imparts is not physically painted on the canvas. What exists here is a deluge - a great flood, an inundation, a sense of overwhelmingness.”
Courtesy of Brandt-Roberts Galleries
The development of the flood series evolved for Burk after viewing media images from Hurricane Florence.
“What is most remarkable about the series is the tone and aura he imbues in his paintings,” the release states. “The fields of color become serene, almost hopeful, sites for meditation or contemplation, recollecting the idea of a flood myth, making a clean state in which to start over.”
Burk lives and works in central Ohio. Recent awards for his work include a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2018), an individual excellence award from the Ohio Arts Council (2019) and a visual arts fellowship from the Greater Columbus Arts Council and Columbus Museum of Art (2019). Burk was just awarded a residency for January and February 2021 at the prestigious Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut.
The exhibition’s opening reception will run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 4 and will be on view through Sept. 27. The event is free and open to the public, but a free, timed ticket is required.
Virtual exhibition previews are available starting Aug. 28 and a virtual tour of the exhibition will occur at 2 p.m. Sept. 5.
In addition, works from his flood series will be exhibited at the Columbus Museum of Art in November.
