Chris Burnside

EDUCATION

2001 Master of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

1996 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Washington, Seattle

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2009 Gross McCleaf, Solo Exhibition, Philadelphia

2008 National Academy Museum, 183rd Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art, New York
Gross McCleaf, Inquiry, Philadelphia

2007 Alpan Gallery, Installation Wall Drawing, Cut Pieces and Works on Paper, Huntington, NY
Tastes Like Chicken Art Space, Installation, Brooklyn

2006 Washington Art Association, Installation and Drawings, Washington, CT
Real Art Ways, Benefit Auction, Hartford, CT
Artists Space, Night of 1000 Drawings, New York

2005 Eugene, Yili Art Foundation 3rd Annual Exhibition, Orlando Lima, curator, New York
SOIL Gallery, Abstaction Obstruction: Working the Meridians, Jeff Burgurt, curator, Seattle

2004 Open Air, Installation, New York

2003 Kresge Gallery, The Object: Color and Carrier, Seth Ely, curator,
Ramapo College, New Jersey

2002 Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Solo Exhibition, Philadelphia

2001 Horton Gallery, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Matt Freedman, curator, Philadelphia
Fox Gallery, Two Person Exhibition, Philadelphia

2000 Meyerson Gallery, Second Year MFA Exhibition, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia
Meyerson Gallery, Graduate School of Fine Arts Award Winners' Show,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Wayne Art Center, 2000 National Spring Open Juried Exhibition Barbara
Grossman, juror, Wayne, PA
Meyerson Gallery, First Year MFA Exhibition, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia
Creative Arts Workshop, Vital Signs: Drawing as Inquiry, Robert Reed, juror,
New Haven

SLIDE REGISTRIES AND AWARDS

2008 S.J. Wallace Truman Fund Prize, National Academy Museum, 183rd Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art, New York

2005 Drawing Center Slide Registry, New York

2002 Real Art Ways Slide Registry, Hartford

2000 Stuart Egnal Scholarship, Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia
Juror's Prize, 2000 National Spring Open Juried Exhibition, Barbara Grossman,
juror, Wayne, PA



STATEMENT

My work consists primarily of cut/panel pieces in wood, installations and murals, and works on paper using a variety of media. In all of these I have been concerned with exploring linear elements and the built environment. The imagery alludes to architectural spaces without depicting them, creating lines that simultaneously obscure and dissolve connections to the world while maintaining a link to physical realities of ornament, texture and most importantly a viewer’s changing position.

For example, in my installations, consistent-radius circles move across and respond to walls, corners, and floors, altering and heightening the viewer’s experience of architectural space. Moving through the installation, these circles alternately transform into ellipses and arcs; they intersect and interact with other pieces of circles creating new geometries and new relationships to the space. Inside of this network, intuitive, accidental, and random marks may weave through the geometric framework distorting a rational system.

Integrating marks created out of different systems extends to the cut pieces where I develop a physical object that allows for an element of surprise and the possibility of undermining the criteria that I have set up to create a piece. I begin by separating the front and back of a piece of plywood. I then create two distinct and unrelated paintings. As both sides evolve I cut out one of the sides through the other and then glue the pieces back down, thus fusing the two works. I continue to work on the face of the painting. It is now one work where the evidence of its making reveals a tactile object that can be taken apart and reassembled visually. I use the liquid acrylic and ink works on paper to quickly sketch and move through ideas I might adapt to the installations and cut/panel pieces through a slower, more laborious process.

I want to make work that will encourage contemplation—a respite from the daily inundation and unconscious filtering of visual experience.