Meet the artist

Rupert Burt

Rupert Burt’s current practice falls into two categories, ‘Fall’ and ‘Trace’ paintings. The title “Fall” refers to the way in which paint is poured onto the canvas. The aim of the process is to strike a balance between the role of chance and the artist’s control or intervention. The tension of these opposing forces makes manifest images that are at once figurative and abstract. The pearlescent pools of paint are set against flat and modulated surfaces, this achieves a highly illusionistic effect.

Trace Paintings are made by a complex process that is similar to watching a photograph develop, translucent forms gradually appear out of a dark undulating ground to create a deep sense of space and luminosity. The paintings are carefully constructed yet constantly appear to be on the cusp of emergence or dissolution. The paintings are the sum of many traces, each successive layer predefines the image yet at the same time reveals previous layers to show the paintings’ history, thus the time inscribed in their making.

The photographic likeness of the work is enhanced by the overall sheerness of the surface and the grain that the images are made up of. The paintings are also coated with interference mica particles that intensify their luminosity and play with light on the surface, giving them a subtle jewel like quality and fluctuating colour that is analogous to that found in scientific forms of photography.

Work by this artist