Gary Burnley

Black Americans live in a different world, or maybe we live in the same world differently is a more accurate description. I think of being an artist and the work I do as a way of inserting myself into places where I do not belong, where historically I’ve been told I have no place.
I mean to disrupt the reading of familiar narratives by shifting vernacular, by nudging the emphasis towards what could not be imagined, anticipated or expected. Like viewing a performance of a play you know well and have seen many times before, performed in another language or taking place in a different time period or casted without regard to race or gender, I’m interested in the struggle that ensues between what has been lost and what has been discovered as a result of an adaptation. I make choices intuitively not always knowing exactly where the process will lead me or what the results might mean. I’m more interested in raising questions than finding answers and usually surprised by the clarity obtained in the contradiction.

Website garyburnley.com

Swimmers 2020

David 2018

After Guy 2018

Study 2018

Double Portrait 2019

The Artist Studio 2019

Kings of Yesteryear 2017

Pair 2018

Smile 2019

Untitled 2019