Curatorial Projects
GARDEN SCHOOL
Curated by Emily Carol Burns
October 2–November 21, 2020
Trestle Gallery
850 3rd Avenue, Suite 411
Brooklyn, NY, 11232
Angelina Gualdoni
Pareesa Pourian
Lauren Portada
Padma Rajendran
Alexandria Tarver
PAST PROJECTS
ZIP CITY
Curated by Emily Carol Burns
August 1–September 1, 2020
Left Field Gallery
1036 Los Osos Valley Road
Los Osos, CA 93402
Nancy Y. Kim
Theresa Daddezio
Sarah Grass
Sidney Mullis
Calli Moore
Seldon Yuan
Lauriston Avery
Curatorial Statement
Zip City features of the work of seven artists and bring together painting, sculpture, work on paper, and mixed media work. All pieces included in the show incorporate line as a primary element—whether forming the strokes of hand-written text, rhythmic biological forms, criss-crossing threads, dyed sand-coated wooden arches, or deep channels carved into thick paper. Line can evoke a feeling of the liminal—a transient quality, like electricity passing through a live wire. The beginnings and ends fade away and the medium is the message—the paths taken leave behind the memory of the journey.
I wanted to curate a show where each work and each artist's approach was quite different—from vastly different materials and themes—but were tied together in an uncanny, non-verbal way. The artists all approached line in unique ways and I felt that the show, although it had a lot of variety, was also very cohesive and felt like a complete thought when the viewer entered the space. Curating a physical exhibition during Covid was a different experience, but it felt really wonderful to be able to have real work in a real space when so many shows had either been postponed or online. I worked closely with the gallery to realize the show, even though I couldn't travel to install in person.
BIOPHILIA
Curated by Emily Carol Burns
September 28th–October 27th
Unpaved Gallery
59474 Scandia Lane
Yucca Valley, CA 92284
Howard Fonda
Delphine Hennelly
Greg Ito
Haley Josephs
Aaron Elvis Jupin
Karen Lederer
Nat Meade
Laurie Nye
Padma Rajendran
Kathia St. Hilaire
Jasmine Zelaya
Curatorial Statement
There is a type of exchange between humans and nature that remains deeply rooted at the core of our beings on the planet. This intrique—eroding over time on a grand scale in American culture—makes frequent appearances today in various forms of contemporary art in the wake of widespread climate concerns and many other systemic anxieties affecting communities on a grand scale. In the hectic nature of our everyday lives, the quiet, simple hum of the reciprocal romance with nature can get lost in all the noise.
Biophilia is a group exhibition of paintings and works on paper by artists from across the US that explores the human relationship with plants and living things on earth through the lens of contemporary painting. The relationship between the human and botanical—unique to each person, non-verbal, intuitive and unspoken—a mysterious and perhaps clairvoyant experience. Painting, then, seems like an appropriate channel through which to investigate the bond between people and plants.
Comprised of artwork being made within the past year, this show attempts to capture some small fragment of the zeitgeist, and present work that considers the ways in which our connection with nature is present today. The exhibition takes inspiration from the desert landscape surrounding the gallery—the desert being a place inviting quiet introspection, and the value and viability of life in an arid environment. Together, this collection of work provides an occasion for reflection and consideration of this deep—though perhaps dormant—elemental intimacy.
LINGER STILL
A solo exhibition of work by Kaveri Raina
Curated by Emily Carol Burns
April 12–May 12, 2019
Assembly Room
191 Henry Street
New York, NY 10002
PRESS RELEASE
ESSAY by Megha Ralapati
Curatorial Statement
Assembly Room presents Linger Still, a solo show of new work by Kaveri Raina, curated by Emily Carol Burns.
In her paintings, Raina depicts the sensation of navigating unfamiliar territory. Born and raised in Delhi, India, and moving to the United States at a young age, she grapples with the questions of self and reflects on her past and future through themes of displacement, in-betweenness, and unease through painting. She considers her work an extension of her parents, their upbringing, and the morals and teachings they instilled in her.
The works in this show continue Raina’s search on what it means to hover. She questions what it feels like to linger or float over time— and to eventually learn to embrace the inherent uncertainty. In a shift from past themes, these new works represent this recent embodiment of perpetual liminality—a conscious choice to be neither here nor there, a simultaneity of otherness. Making a sentient choice to be part of many, to experience a hybrid identity evokes the sadness of memories seemingly lost, but also the mirage of what could have been. The consequences of this decision become sometimes empowering, often precarious, and always clouded by ambiguity.
Highly meditative, yet vigorous color energizes the woven burlap and canvas surfaces of the paintings, creating a visual push and pull—a metaphor for the lively unease of the experience of constant relocation and reinvention. Burlap is a significant material, the rough weave of the fibers offering a surface which is already permeable, and on which paint can be applied from opposite planes. The making of the paintings themselves becomes a physical embodiment of a shifting, rotating approach to existence.
Recapturing the directness of drawing in her practice, Raina incorporates the intimacy and immediacy of graphite into works on paper, as well as larger oil paintings influenced by this re-emergence in her work. An entirely new development includes the appearance of image-based forms and figures, whose physical bodies and forms are embedded together the overlapping, amorphous landscapes.
KITSCH
Curated by Emily Carol Burns
December 10, 2016–January 21, 2017
studio e gallery
609 S Brandon Street
Seattle, WA 98108
Emily Silver
Karen Lederer
Caroline Larsen
Caroline Wells Chandler
Paul Komada
TAKE 2
Curated by Emily Carol Burns and studio e gallery
January–February 2017
The Alice Gallery
6007 12th Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98108
Caroline Wells Chandler
Emily Burns
Kyla Hansen
Caroline Larsen
Karen Lederer
Emily Silver
Paul Komada
Whiting Tennis.
DEAL WITH IT
A survey of contemporary painting and works on paper by thirty-three artists
Curated by Emily Carol Burns
August 22–October 19, 2016
The Woskob Family Gallery
State College, PA 16801
ARTISTS
Diana Behl / Julia Berkman / Morgan Blair / Caetlynn Booth / Melissa Brown / Matthew Carrieri / Caroline Wells Chandler / Sarah Coote / Douglas Degges / Maria Dimanshtein / Magda Dudziak / Sarabeth Dunton / Mark Joshua Epstein / Jen Hitchings / Peter Hoffmeister / Ken Horne / Will Hutnick / Katie Kirk / Kirstin Lamb / Tony Loftman / Kate McCammon / Senem Oezdogan / Janet Olney / Ashely Peifer / Allison Reimus / Samantha Robinson / Kathleen Rogers / Gyan Shrosbree / Yael Ben-Simon / Garth Swanson / Millee Tibbs / Emma Webster / Sarah West / Nick Wilkinson
