Raktism and Metachaos: Closing Reception & Poetry Night

6PM | Closing Reception in the Main Gallery
7PM | Poetry night in the Marquee Lounge

About the Artist

Ainsley Burrows (b. 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica; based in Brooklyn, NY and Baltimore, MD) is a multidisciplinary artist who explores untold stories and unspoken emotions. He is a poet, musician, and performer, as well as a painter, and his different creative pursuits influence each other. Raised in Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, NY, Burrows paints with his upbringing in the foreground, referencing the many lessons and stories, historical figures and events, and movements and diasporas that have shaped his perspective.

Burrows’ practice mainly uses two methodologies: NeoChaos and Raktism. The former is characterized by expressive gestures and lines, and deep, passionate swaths of color. With it, he explores the reverberations of a history that continues to affect him, showing how the past is alive and how we must make its legacy visible. Raktism is defined by sharp, boundary-creating lines and visual echoes. It is an exploration of the fourth dimension and an attempt to understand the unknowable through systems of control. The flow of lines—sometimes connecting, sometimes separating—represent the many streams of sudden, painful, and historic phenomena…highways of time.

Burrows has upcoming solo exhibitions at SUNY Oneota, Oneonta, NY; Rush Arts, Philadelphia, PA; The Lion Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD. He is participating in an upcoming group exhibition at 11:Eleven Gallery, Washington, DC; and in the past has participated in group exhibitions at Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY; and 3rd Eye Sol-lation Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. His work is included in several private collections including those of Hill Harper, Jeffrey Wright, Wayee Chu, Lisane Basquiat, Jeanine and Herve Heriveaux, and Andre and Joia Perry.