NYAB Event - Tom Burckhardt "Louder Milk"

Tom Burckhardt "Louder Milk"

Pierogi

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In this new body of work, Burckhardt continues in his persistent effort to blur the boundaries between abstraction and representation, between painting and sculpture, between tradition and invention. Rather than trying to merge opposites, however, he works to embody each simultaneously. His imagery can appear entirely abstract, or a figurative element can emerge here or there. Traditional oil paint is applied to cast plastic rather than stretched canvas. There is a sense of the paintings being simultaneously hand made and mass-produced. Burckhardt enjoys the tension that these contradictions produce; their effect of slowing down the viewing and perception process, and the fact that the paintings cannot be easily “read” in one glance.

“…[T]he casting of the support posits them as sculptures and paintings at the same time, because it’s the form of a painting, a canvas, but it’s made in a process related to sculpture. They’re mass-produced and they’re handmade and touched, and then they’re abstract and figurative. They’re all those things come together under the umbrella of a hybrid of some sort.” (The Brooklyn Rail. Interview with John Yau)

Regarding the imagery in his paintings, Burckhardt notes the effect of pareidolia, where recognizable, representational images can appear randomly. When this effect “…crops up [in his paintings]…rather than veering away, like a good and pure abstractionist, I steer in to this territory. My interest lies in utilizing this extremely powerful image-wiring we all have which is our most primary visual itch and keeping a parallel track in abstraction active simultaneously.”

Media

• Painting
• Sculpture

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