XYandZ is proud to present Building on Building, an exhibition of new works by New York based artist Erik Burke. Burke, who works primarily on the street under the name Over Under, is an artist focused on bringing art from the pedestal to the people. But, in the process has realized you can't do it if you set out to do it. So in order to make art a part of every one's daily life Burke has had to make art a part of his everyday experience.

Burke’s more recent portraits are modern reflections of the city itself. Using spray paint on thin and inexpensive paper, he creates figures restricted in architectural imagery where anonymous limbs jut out of doors, windows, and storefront gates. His masked figures, characterized by talking doors and winking windows, express the comforts in shelter, while also highlighting the restrictive nature of our built landscape. These works on paper return full circle as he pastes the paintings on the very buildings that were their inspiration.

Giving the work over to the street, and letting go of ownership, has given his portraits a new life and purpose unachievable in the controlled spaces of the studio or the gallery. As his works weather and age, accumulate tags and tears, or disappear altogether, the fate of the art becomes the art.

However this new body of work faces an inevitable dilemma. When moved into the gallery how does one show the same work without all the personality of an always changing, fading, tearing, and smudging backdrop? His answer, move the backdrop to the forefront.

In these new works on paper, Burke creates mash-ups of the NYC everyday with glowing detail. He samples pieces of architecture, actual graffiti, and ornamentation, then stacks them into physically impossible totem poles. The structures mimic the dense look and feel of a contemporary metropolis, yet seem altogether out of this world. Limbs occasionally appear out of windows but even without their presence the buildings become anthropomorphic. The work may regard the truth but its strength comes from fabricating beautiful lies.

Burke’s explorative nature has taken him to places surreal and vernacular. He uses these unique perspectives to assert and question his presence, and this latest work seems to hold new answers.

Erik Burke is a fifth generation Nevadan who received his MFA in Design and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design. Burke’s interests have always included street art, architecture, and the creative use of urban spaces. His past works have included building and living in a cabin in the heart of Brooklyn, running a gallery in an alleyway in Reno, biking across Europe, and seeking out weathered and decommissioned spaces for wheat pastes and murals. Throughout his decade-plus of public works he has continually returned to the concepts of urban refuge, exploration, and the aesthetics of architectural repurposing.

Websites:
overunder.blogspot.com/
eriktburke.com

Recent projects:
evilmonito.com/2009/04/10/erik-burkes-writers-bench/

Awards:
Honorarium for Ghost Train Black Rock City Foundation, with Mark Bruels and Lynn Maharas, Summer 2010.
Best Use Of Space Award Come Out and Play Festival, with Lynn Maharas. NYC, NY. June 2009
Merit-Based Graduate Deans Scholar Recipient Parsons New School for Design. 8/2007 - 5/2009
MFA Department Honors Candidate 5/2009
City of Reno, Neighborhood Advisory Board Grant for (con)Temporary Gallery. 2007
Artist in Residency C.A.P. Art In Public Program, Carson City. 2006-2007
Fulbright Selected Alternate Vilnius Academy of Fine Art, Lithuania. 2006
Honorarium form Clark Country Dept. of Aviation McCarran Int'l Airport mural, Las Vegas. 2006-2007
Honorarium from Capitol City Arts Initiative Carson City. 2005 and 2006.
Jackport Grant with Derek Yost, Nevada Arts Council. 2005
Student Grant Sierra Arts, Reno. 2004
NAB Ward 2 grant Washoe Country mural restoration, Reno. 2004 and 2005