Jan Murphy Gallery is delighted to present ‘Variations’, an exhibitions of new paintings by Keith Burt.
‘Variations’ is an exploration of calm moods and quiet corners in still life painting. Keith’s latest body of work is characterised by the tactile quality of his subjects, from chalky white vessels and hollow glass, to scrunched paper and dried eucalypts. Other subjects, such as skulls and splayed fish hint at a memento mori trope; a reminder of the inevitability of death.
“The work has a contemplative simplicity, void of clutter. A relief for the eyes…The objects in the still life paintings are chosen to fit the colour scheme and arrangement of shapes. They mainly come from around the house, or the op shop near the studio. The primary attraction to each object is its colour and ability to catch the light in a certain way, or to complement the shapes of other objects. I try to coordinate them to achieve a balance of shades and composition.” – Keith Burt, 2022
Since 2010, Keith Burt has had solo exhibitions every year in Brisbane and, in 2017, also in Melbourne. In 2020, Burt won the Brisbane Portrait Prize with a portrait of Matthew and Daniel Tobin (founders of Urban Art Projects). He is a four-time Archibald Prize finalist (2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022), a finalist in The Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition (2010, 2011) and the Clayton Utz Art Prize (2013). Keith Burt also features in a Thames and Hudson publication Still Life (2021) and has completed commissions for Brisbane Grammar School, the Mater Hospital, Brisbane, Churchie Grammar School and Spicers Potts Point.
Image: Keith Burt, ‘Fish’, 2022, oil on canvas, 40.0 x 50.0 cm
