Kelly Burke has had a lifetime of painting and carpentry experience. She discovered the world of art while living abroad one year in Germany. She now enjoys painting on smaller surfaces like canvas and paper. She often makes her own frames and stretches her own canvases to better craft the size and material that best suits her paintings. Her political-conceptual artwork deals with major issues of our day related to social justice and racial injustice. The Reimagined American Flag series is an artistic intervention to change the American psyche for humanity’s sake one flag, one person, and one conversation at a time. The nine pieces in the “States of Being “series visually push the potential meanings of the 50 stars/states of the US flag at both the national level and the level of individual identity and consciousness. The Daily Issue series tackles US problems one reads about on the front pages of our newspapers every day from a visually symbolic perspective intended to spark conversation. Using materials from oil and acrylic paints to charcoals, pastels, and oil bars, she also captures animals with great empathy and explores the world of abstract expressionism.

Please contact Kelly to request more information about exhibiting any of her artwork. You can email directly at kburkeworks@gmail.com or find her on Facebook.

A portrait of your favorite pet or animal may also be commissioned. Please feel free to discuss the range of possible mediums most appropriate for the animal portrait you are considering and may wish to commission. Kelly also donates 10% of the sale price of all her animal paintings to support the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS): http://baltimoreanimalshelter.org/

Awards

• Best of Show: “All Lives Matter Flag“ Painting, “Uniting the States: Giving Form to a Vision of Unity,” Community Art Therapy Services Online Exhibition, Jan 1-Feb 2, California 2018
• First Place: “Orange, White, and Black” painting, Orange is the New Black Exhibition, Ashton Gallery, San Diego 2017
• Honorable Mention: “Don’t Lives Matter? Flag” painting, Op Ed Exhibit, The Art League, Alexandria, VA 2016
• Viewers’ Choice Award: “All Lives Matter Flag” quilt, Home Arts, Quilts section, Maryland State Fair, 2016
• Third Place: “Black Lives Matter Flag” painting, “Art as Politics,” Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC, 2016
• Faculty Choice Award: “Black Lives Matter Flag” quilt, non-judged section, Minnesota Quilt Show, 2016

Media

• Orange County Center for Contemporary Art webpage of “Art as Protest” exhibition (June 2017) with list of press mentions: http://www.occca.org/2017-06.html
• Charleston City Paper review by Mary Scott Hardaway (3/7/2017) of Fabulon “We, The People” exhibition includes mention of all flags
• Carolina Arts News review by Tom Starland (3/11/2016) of Fabulon “We, The People” exhibition includes image of DLM flag
• The Art League, Flickr Exhibition of Op Ed Exhibit
• The Art League, the Op Ed Exhibit Program with list of awards & honorable mentions
• WHUT TV interviewed artists at the “Art as Politics” show in Washington, D.C. as part of their Artico program, including a segment on Kelly’s Black Lives Matter Flag: first aired 9/21/2016 (@10:16-14:22, of 26:47 mins)
• Penn State News review by Regina Broscius of Reimagined American Flag series show (9/7/2016)
• Montgomery News review of Penn State-Abington University show in the student union (9/7/2016)
• Washington Post review of BLM flag in “Art as Politics” show in Washington, D.C. (8/12/2016)
• East City Artnotes review of BLM flag in “Arts as Politics” show in Washington, D.C. (8/11/2016)

Education

• The Schuler School of Fine Art, January 2013-present
• The Mitchell School of Fine Art, Summer 2013
• MICA, School for Professional and Continuing Studies, Fall 2013, Fall 2014
• Klemens Wuttke, Atelier Eins, Nuremberg, Germany, January-August 2012
• Mira O’Brien, The Berlin Drawing Room, Berlin, Germany, July-September 2011