Demetri Burke is a young artist currently attending Georgia State University in Atlanta. He is a BFA candidate with a concentration in drawing, painting, and printmaking. Last winter, during Art Basel week in Miami, he showcased his work in the YoungArts alumni group show, Within Interdependence, curated by Deanna Haggag of United States Artists. This is followed by him receiving the Juried Student Exhibition Award by Larry and Gwen Walker in honor of Casandra Wood Walker, in the spring. He uses mixed media, including charcoal, acrylic paint, and found images, to express narratives of identity and race on canvas. Abstraction, montage, and realistic rendering are key parts in his creation process.
About
Burke creates an amalgamation of differing motifs and thoughts. His body of art work is diverse and fluid, never fully standing still for too long. Sometimes the focus is intensely on the Black figure. Other times, he builds layer after layer to create murky images of nostalgia in a southern lens. Everything is unified in its intimacy with the viewer, the depiction of the Blackness, and narratives that wrestle with trauma and affection.He is capturing the world he grew up in along with the world he inhabits now. His constant examination showcases his findings: black like the skin, still like the clouds, hopeful like his mother’s smile.