DEMETRI BURKE
Demetri Burke is a young artist recently graduating with his BFA Degree in Studio Art, Magna Cum Laude, from Georgia State University and is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. His latest highlight includes being featured in the 3rd annual AXA Art Prize Juried Exhibition held in New York Academy of Art, juried by Ian Alteveer, Lauren Haynes, Brett Littman and Eugenie Tsai. He uses mixed media, including charcoal, oil paint, and found images, to express narratives of identity and culture on canvas. Abstraction, montage and realistic rendering are key parts in his creation process.
Burke creates an amalgamation of differing motifs and thoughts. His body of art work is diverse and fluid, never fully standing still for too long. Sometimes the focus is intensely on the Black figure. Other times, he builds layer after layer to create murky images of nostalgia in a southern lens. Everything is unified in its intimacy with the viewer, the depiction of the Blackness, and narratives that wrestle with trauma and affection. He is capturing the world he grew up in along with the world he inhabits now. His constant examination of themes showcases his findings: black like the skin, still like the clouds and hopeful like his mother’s smile.
