The Known World
September 2 – October 2, 2021
Blue Sky is pleased to announce the 2020 Critical Mass Solo Exhibition, The Known World by Gary Burnley. In his series of unique photo-collages, Burnley constructs images that layer our memory with revered representations of beauty, power, influence, identity and social status into unlikely, chance encounters with other images. Burnley’s intention is to craft alternative parables that invade and challenge the immortality and purity of long-held Western cultural profiles, ideals, and attitudes.
It’s not about
the white man’s vision, his concept of
beauty, history, language, meaning or
reason.
It’s about
the particulars of the narrative,
a disruption of what
has always been uncomplicated,
characterizations,
false assumptions,
inconsistencies.
It’s about memory
and it’s insertion into
that which otherwise could not have been
imagined.
Gary Burnley (b. Saint Louis, Missouri) creates collages that reconfigure historical models of beauty, identity and social status. Constructed from divergent visual fragments whose previous structure, meaning and historical importance, though no longer fully in tack, still live among a catalog of memories and consequences in the mind of the viewer. His amalgamations shift the reading of familiar narratives and generally accepted interpretations, nudging an emphasis towards the discovery of what could not otherwise have been anticipated. Burnley received a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA from Yale University. A 2022 recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and The Aftermath Project Finalist Grant, his work is part of museum and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, Light Work Collection, Syracuse, NY, Candela Collection, Richmond, VA, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN., Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Aperture Gallery, NYC, Amarillo Art Museum, Amarillo, TX, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA, Elizabeth Houston Gallery, NYC, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, Queens Museum, Queens, NY, Alice Austen House Museum, Staten Island, NY, Hansen-Fuller Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, Tbilisi University, Tbilisi, Georgia, Leo Castelli Gallery, NYC, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA, Holly Solomon Gallery, NYC, SALON, Florence, Italy, and Artists Space, NYC.