York University
Art Collection Online

Brian Burnett (1952– ) was born in South Porcupine, Ontario, and studied art at the New School of Art, Toronto, from 1974–1976 under the tutelage of modernist figurative painters Graham Coughtry and Gordon Rayner. He was represented by Isaacs gallery from 1979–1988 and Gallery One from 1989–2004. In 1981, Burnett co-founded ChromaZone, an artist collective in Toronto focused around figurative art. The collective sought to diversify what it saw as Toronto’s ossified aesthetic and cultural regime and its stagnant Modernist art milieu. In its lifespan between 1981–86, it showcased the work of over 400 painters, sculptors, architects, writers, poets, illustrators, jewelers, filmmakers, fashion and furniture designers, as well as ceramic, glass, video, installation, audio and performance artists.

Burnett’s paintings follow Chromazone’s spirit of reinvention. His style features heavy impasto paint application congealing into what one critic called, “woozy undulating surfaces,” which broke with the strictures of Modernist colour theory to produce humorous and ironic affects. This style mirrored the postmodern turn and global political upheaval of the time, often featuring allegorical and theatrical interior scenes in lurid palettes. This seems to have offended many establishment critics of the time, as noted in contemporaneous publications.

His interest in the two-dimensional picture plane also led to his adopting digital-analog hybrid techniques. In the 1990s, Burnett created digital paintings using Painter 12 software. The final works are limited-edition prints on canvas, mounted on birch panel, with an acrylic topcoat that creates a simulacrum of Burnett’s characteristic style and painting techniques.

Burnett has lived in Toronto for most of his career, except for a year in Vancouver in 1985. Burnett’s work has been collected by the City of Toronto, General Electric, Government of Ontario, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Windsor, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Glenbow Museum and McLaren Art, as well as American Express, and is featured in many private collections.