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“FIN DE SIÈCLE”

Year: 1991
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60 x 48 ″

Brian Burke

Born: Aug. 5, 1952 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI)
Died: Dec. 19, 2017 in Murray Harbour, Prince Edward Island (PEI)

Brian Burke was one of Canada’s foremost figurative painters. His paintings often consider basic questions of contemporary society, sometimes by poking fun. Burke studied design at Holland College (1971-73), and Fine Art at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (1974). He lived in PEI and Switzerland. Burke’s work was supported by the PEI Council of the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts. It has been exhibited in numerous public galleries in group and solo exhibitions and at international art fairs and is in many collections in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

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Brian Burke // Light On The Subject
Jan 17 - Feb 8, 2025

Throughout Burke’s oeuvre, one immediately feels an invisible tension as stark scenes, illuminated by intentionally unsettling sources, seem to speak to some sort of unspoken truth. LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT exposes how Burke used light, theatrically and cinematically, to create forboding narratives. One is met with haunting scenes that exist in painterly stasis, indefinite incompleteness. Stark scenes and lone figures feel both charming and ominous, where the painting functions as a bearer of truth and fiction, reflecting modern alienation and isolation.

“The title for this exhibition comes from the painting ‘LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT’ completed by the artist in 2001. This exhibition focuses on light sources used in his paintings and reflects Brian Burke’s wide scope of subject matter over the years. Figures are under different light sources – and subject matter is illuminated.”
— Judith Scherer Burke

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