Artist statement
My work, both past and present, is underpinned by the central themes of absence, isolation, mortality and the spiritual. It is the balance between paint, process and subject matter that has maintained my visual language and its development through what on the surface may seem to have been differing themes. I am grappling with the concept of hæcceity, inscape, thing-ness, essence and the ontological in the way I see a stone, rock-pool or lichen growth. The challenge is then using paint and charcoal to communicate this experience to the viewer as well as incorporating my own refractions of self, identity and awareness of mortality and the spiritual.
Returning to Pembrokeshire regularly presents the dilemma, ‘Which beach to visit?’ It is the catalyst to continue asking questions through paint. It is, ‘the breath’ that my work references again and again. ‘To feel breath, the wind and space. To be human in the primeval wind, to taste the wind, to shiver. To breathe in memory, thought, serenity, time and contemplation.’ When I ask myself once again what is the point of painting? What do my paintings do? I see that the point is quite simply to create a painting which ‘allows thought itself to breathe.’
“To feel breath, the wind and space. To be human in the primeval wind, to taste the wind, to shiver.”
CV Summary
Brendan Stuart Burns was born in 1963; he currently lives and works between Cardiff and St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He studied Fine Art at Cardiff College of Art (1981 – 1985), and undertook a postgraduate in painting at The Slade School of Art, University College London (1985 – 1987). He won the Gold Medal in Fine Art at The National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1993 and 1998, and Welsh Artist of the Year in 2000 and 2003.
Burns has exhibited both Nationally and Internationally, including America, France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand and Spain. His one-person exhibitions include Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St Helena and Montecito, California. 2023 / 2024. Aotearoa – A Brighter Light. Artis Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand. 2022. Edging West - New Paintings, Drawings & Ceramics Osborne Samuel Gallery, London 2019. Rosenberg & Co, New York 2019. Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Flow & Pulse Rosenberg & Co, New York 2016. Gesture | Glimpse | Memory Osborne Samuel Gallery, London, 2015. Influere, Oriel Y Parc – Landscape Gallery, St. Davids; Tidal Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, 2005. Not the Stillness… National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Oriel Clwyd and Newport Museum & Art Gallery 2002. As well as Being… National Museums & Galleries of Wales, Turner House Gallery, Cardiff 1999.
He has shown widely in group exhibitions, including Caldwell Snyder Gallery, California. 2021,2022, 2023. Auckland Art Fair 2021 / 2022, Artis Gallery New Zealand. Summer Exhibition, Artis Gallery New Zealand 2021. Fine Art Paris, Rosenberg & Co, New York. Recent Paintings, Osborne Samuel Gallery London 2019; Art Fairs including British Art Fair, Masterpiece, London Art Fair and Art Miami, Osborne Samuel 2018-19. The Armory Modern, New York, Osborne Samuel Gallery and Rosenberg & Co, 2016 & 2015. Masterpiece, Osborne Samuel 2015/16/17/18. Art Miami, Osborne Samuel 2014/15/16/18. 4 Contemporary Artists, Osborne Samuel Gallery London 2014. Masterpieces of Modern British Art’, Osborne Samuel Gallery London 2008. Refractions / Shadows 7 Artists curated by Mel Gooding, Lemon St Gallery Truro 2008. Vll Xuntanza Obradoiro Internacional das Artes Plasticas, Museo Municipal ‘Ramon Maria Allen, Spain 2004. Places, National Museums & Galleries of Wales, Cardiff 2003. West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard 2003. Gordon Hepworth Gallery, Affordable Art Fair New York 2003. Painting Ysbryd / Spirit Wales, Festival Interceltique de L’Orient, France, National Eisteddfod of Wales, St Davids 2002. Different Lights, UKwithNY Festival, Angel Orensanz Arts Centre, New York 2001. Welsh Artists Talking, National Museum & Galleries of Wales, Cardiff 2000.
His work is held in numerous private and public collections including The National Museum & Galleries of Wales, The Derek Williams Trust, The Contemporary Art Society of Wales, A Fundacion Casa Museo ‘A Solaina’ de Pilono, Spain and Contemporary Art Society of Britain (Tom Bendhem Bequest), America, Australia, China, Denmark, Holland, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and The United Arab Emirates.
Burns is represented by Caldwell Snyder Gallery, California, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London and Artis Gallery, New Zealand.