Jesse Burke (Rhode Island, USA), ‘La Petite Mort’, 2007
Jesse Burke (Rhode Island, USA), ‘La Petite Mort’, 2007, Titled, Dated, Edition & Signature written in pencil on verso. Numbered 1 of 8 on verso. Archival Inkjet Print. Measures 11 x 17 inches. Very mild creases on border / see photo.
Appraised at USD$1500.
Offered at $750
Press & Interviews:
Jesse Burke (b. 1972)
Jesse Burke’s series, Low, continues his exploration of the tension between the ideals of masculinity set up by society and what he calls “the true reality of men” — the actuality of existing as a man in the world today. These photographs of homeless men on the margins of society work to uncover their harsh existence and emphasize the humanity typically overlooked by those in the mainstream.
As Burke puts it: “My intentions are to take people that one ignores or passes in the streets and place them on a pedestal to emphasize their individual beauty. The straightforward images of weeds are meant to compliment the men and reinforce the idea that they are living on the fringes of society and are equally forgotten. In these images harden souls become vulnerable icons, allowing the world to see a different side of being low.”
Jesse Burke divides his time between personal art projects and commissioned work. Jesse’s work deals with themes related to vulnerability and identity, as well as human’s complicated relationship with nature. Daylight Books published his monograph, Wild & Precious in 2015. He received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, where he is a faculty member. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the U.S. and abroad and is held in many private and public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Jesse was recently named one Time Magazine’s top 50 US photographers to follow on Instagram.
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The work in the exhibition, titled Low, is a collection of portraits of men who are ordinarily overlooked or ignored. In the Lowertown district of Ottawa, Burke sought out individuals who are often considered down and out. In return for compensation, each man agreed to remove their garments and step into a glowing light to be photographed. Reminiscent of Caravaggio’s figures emerging from the darkness, some look out at our gaze, many look away. We see sunken chests, stooped shoulders, scars and tattoos. But we also see a dignity in these men’s eyes, especially those who return their gaze. The direct opposite of advertising’s perfect male physique, these men’s spirits glow and they reveal their humanity, challenging us to consider our own.
Jesse Burke
EDUCATION
MFA in Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
BFA in Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Jesse Burke
Born Stratford, Connecticut, 1972
Education:
2005 MFA, Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island 2003 BFA, Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Selected solo exhibitions:
2016 “Wild & Precious,” The McIninch Art Gallery, Southern New Hamshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire
“Wild & Precious,” Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
“Wild & Precious,” Gallery Kayafas, Boston 2015 “Wild & Precious,” ClampArt, New York City
2014 “Most Endangered,” Salomon Hall, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (Commissioned by the Providence Preservation Society)
2013 “High Life,” Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts
2012 ”Blind,” Platform Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2011 “Jesse Burke,” Pulse Art Fair, ClampArt Booth, Miami
“Low,” Perth Center for Photography, Perth, Australia
“Summerland,” Cross’Mills Library, Charlestown, Rhode Island 2010 “Intertidal,” ClampArt, New York City
“Intertidal,” Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon 2009 “Low,” Platform Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2008 “Solo Show No. 13,” Humble Arts Foundation, New York City “Intertidal,” 4 Walls Fine Art Austin, Texas
“2008 RISCA Fellowship Exhibition,” Machines W/O Magnets Gallery, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
2007 “Jesse Burke,” Four Walls Gallery Portland, Maine “Intertidal,” Platform Gallery Seattle, Washington
“Jesse Burke,” La Petite Mort Galerie, Ottawa, Canada
“Semper Vigilans,” Providence Public Safety Complex, Providence, Rhode Island 2006 “Semper Vigilans,” Gallery at City Hall, Providence, Rhode Island
“Jesse Burke—Photographs,” La Petite Mort Galerie Ottawa, Canada
Selected group exhibitions:
2018 “Turn it to 1,” ClampArt, Artsy.net Online-Exclusive Exhibition (Curated by Raechel McCarthy)
“Trees II,” Gallery Kayafas, Boston, Massachusetts
2017 “Under the Same Big Sun,” usagiNY, Brooklyn, New York
“Made Masculine,” Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire
“New Year, New Beginning,” Providence Center for Photographic Art, Providence, Rhode Island
“Reading Room,” Venice Arts, Venice, California (Organized by Month of Photography Los Angeles)
247 West 29th Street Ground Floor New York, NY 10001
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2016 “Formative & Persisting: How the Thesis Lives On,” Sol Koffler Graduate Student Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
“The Photobook Exhibition,” Benaki Museum, Athens (Part of the Athens Photo Festival) “By the Book: New Photography Publications,” The Print Center, Philadelphia
“Sticks of the Sun, Ashes of the Night,” San Diego Art Institute, San Diego (Two-person show)
2015 “Landscape as Fetish,” Gallery Kayafas, Boston
2014 “Private Eye: Allen G. Thomas Jr. Photography Collection,” North Carolina
Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
“Documentary: 19th Annual Photography Exhibition,” Photo Center NW, Seattle (Curated by Whitney C. Johnson)
“I’m Your Man,” ISE Cultural Foundation, New York City (Curated by Lauren Kalman and Millee Tibbs)
“Fall Back, Spring Forward: Photography in New England,” Photographic Research Center at Boston University, Boston (Curated by Francine Weiss)
2013 “Correlate,” Platform Gallery, Seattle, Washington
“When We’re Together,” M-Y Projects (in collaboration with Flatfile), Boston “Networks 2013,” Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
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“The Gun Show,” Fovea Gallery, New York City (Curated by Neil Harris, Associate Photo
Editor, Time Magazine)
“The Drinking Show,” Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York City
“Men Working: The Contemporary Collection of Allen Thomas,” Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
“RISD Faculty Biennial,” RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
2012 “Co-Op Pop-Up,” The Perth Centre for Photography/City of Perth’s Winter Art Season, Perth, Australia
“America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now,” RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
“Into the Woods,” ClampArt, New York City
2011 “Linshui Photo Festival,” Linshui, China (Curated by Melanie McWhorter) “Manhood: Masculinity, Male Identity and Culture,” Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, Vermont
“The Truth is Not in the Mirror: Photography and a Constructed Image,” Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and University Galleries, College of Fine Arts, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois
“Sweet Meat,” The Print Center, Philadelphia
“RISD Faculty Biennial 2001,” RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
“Postcards from the Edge,” CRG Gallery, New York City
“Let’s Be Friends,” Residence Gallery, Long Beach, California
2010 “The Truth Is Not In The Mirror,” Haggerty Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
“If on a Winter’s Night,” Platform Gallery, Seattle, Washington
“Aqua, Art Miami,” Miami Beach, Florida
“Traversing Gender,” McIninch Gallery, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire
“100 Portraits – 100 Photographers,” Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Curated by Andy Adams and Larissa Leclair)
“Open Season,” Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina (Curated by Allen Thomas Jr.) “Man Up,” Judy Rotenberg Gallery, Boston
2009 “15th Juried Exhibition,” Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts (Catherine Edelman, Juror)
“The There,” Platform Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Artists for Save The Bay, Save The Bay, Providence, Rhode Island
2008 “Summer Solstice,” Mighty Tieton, Tieton, Washington
“Self & Others,” David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
“Year in Review,” Four Walls Gallery, Portland, ME
No Man is an Island: The Masculine Landscape in the 21st Century,” Printmaking
Center of New Jersey, Branchburg, New Jersey (Juried by Sarah Schmerler
“Book Release,” Platform Gallery, Seattle, WA
2007 “Up & Now,” Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, Washington (Charlotte
Cotton, Juror)
“Men,” Ottawa Photography Festival, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa, Canada “Bytes,” Dinnerware Contemporary Arts, Tucson, Arizona
2006 “PEEK,” Art + Commerce Festival of Emerging Photographers, LAUNE Galerie, Tokyo, Japan; Space Fendi, via Sciesa 3, Milan, Italy; PhotoEspaña, Madrid, Spain; and EXPOSweden, Stockholm, Sweden
“Snap! Click! Bang!,” The Rhys Gallery, Boston
2005 “Dark States,” Platform Gallery, Seattle, Washington
“PEEK,” Art + Commerce Festival of Emerging Photographers, Brooklyn, New York “Faculty Biennial,” RISD Museum Providence, Rhode Island
“First Person,” Froelick Gallery, Portland, Oregon
“New Talent of New England,” Gallery AA/B, Boston
“One Night Stand,” The Bridge, New Orleans, Louisiana
“Small Works,” Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, Massachusetts
“MFA Thesis Exhibition,” RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
“Landed: The Influence of Landscape,” Sol Koffler Gallery, RISD, Providence, Rhode Island
2004 “Burke & McMahon,” Design Center, RISD, Providence, Rhode Island “Three,” Starpin Gallery, Shelton, Connecticut
Sol Koffler Gallery, RISD, Providence, Rhode Island
Red Eye Gallery, RISD, Providence, Rhode Island
2003 “The 2003 Arizona Biennial,” Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
University of Arizona Gallery of Art, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona Todd Walker Gallery, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Awards:
2010 Critical Mass Finalist 2009 Critical Mass Finalist
Review Santa Fe Finalist
2008 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Grant, Aaron Siskind Fellowship in Photography
Bibliography/Publications:
2015 “This is Real,” Real Simple Magazine (June 2015) 2014 “Inside and Out,” Kid-In Magazine (October 2, 2014)
Feature Shoot, “Into the Wild with Jesse Burke” (May 1, 2014) “Viewfinder,” The New York Times Style Magazine (April 24, 2014)
Instagram guest host,” The New Yorker (March 10-17, 2014)
Bramson, Kate, Providence Journal (January 23, 2014)
McCaffery, Jen, “Eye for Design, Rhode Island Monthly
Harrison, Elisabeth, Rhode Island NPR (January 23, 2014)
Connor, Mary, “Preserving Providence,” East Side Monthly (January 14, 2014) Anderson, Patrick, Providence Business News (January 23, 2014)
2013 “Photo of the Day,” PDN (July 18,2013)
Broaddus, Will, “All About Men,” The Gloucester Times (January 24, 2013)
2012 America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now (Rhode Island School of Design Museum:, Providence, Rhode Island), illus.
2011 The Truth is Not in the Mirror (Haggerty Museum of Art: Milwaukee, Wisconsin), illus., pp. 2, 3, 12
Newhall, Edith, “Two Artists, friends, whose work has a kinship,” Philadelphia InquirerI
(March 27, 2011), illus.
2010 “A Year of Promising Signs,” The Boston Globe (December 29, 2010), illus.
“Jesse Burke @ ClampArt,” DLK Collection
Aletti, Vince, “Goings on About Town: Jesse Burke,” New Yorker (July 1, 2010) “Photo of the Day,” PDN (June 30, 2010)
“Man vs. Measures of Masculinity,” The Boston Globe (May 2, 2010)
“Man Up at Judi Rotenberg,” Berkshire Fine Arts (May 2, 2010) 2009 Low [Self-Published Monograph]
The Collector’s Guide To Emerging Art Photography (Humble Arts Foundation) Graves, Jen, “Currently Hanging The Stranger,” SLOG (May 20, 2009)
Hackett, Regina, “Men Around Us,” Another Bouncing Ball (May 21, 2009)
2008 Intertidal [Monograph] (Decode Books)
Kangas, Matthew, “Redneck Chic,” Art Ltd (January 2008)
2007 Preston Catalogue AIGA Journal
Gessel, Paul, Ottawa Citizen (May 29, 2007)
Graves, Jen, “Today the Stranger Suggests,” Seattle Stranger (April 20, 2007) Lippens, Nate, “Depth Beneath the Surface,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (April 12, 2007)
Beal, Suzanne, “Intertidal,” Seattle Weekly (April 12, 2007)
2006 Gessel, Paul, Ottawa Express (August 10, 2006) Ottawa Citizen (August 3, 2006)
2005 Peek [Art + Commerce 2005 Festival of Emerging Photographers Catalog] Deluca, Andie, “First Person at Froelick Gallery,” www.portlandart.net (June 09, 2005)
2004 Watershed, Vol.1 [Brown University Literary Journal]2003 The 2003 Arizona Biennial (Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona) [Exhibition Catalog]
Regan, Margaret, “Radical Demonstration,” Tucson Weekly (June 05, 2003)
Artist lectures/Teaching:
2019 Artist Lecture: Mekinje Monastery, Kamnik, Slovenia (as part of US Embassy Program) 2013 Artist Lecture: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2012 Artist Lecture: Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston
Artist Lecture: The Art Institute of Boston, Boston
Artist Lecture: Photo Center NW, Seattle, Washington
2011 Artist Lecture: Perth Center for Photography, Perth, Australia
Artist Lecture: Haggerty Museum, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2010 Artist Lecture: New Space Center for Photography, Portland Oregon
Artist Lecture: Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire Adjunct Faculty/Critic in Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2009 Artist’s Salon: “Focus on Family,” Project 5, New York City Artist Lecture: Southern Connecticut State University
Artist Lecture: Rhode Island School of Design (Sponsored by Thad Russell), Providence, Rhode Island
Adjunct Faculty/Critic in Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Guest Critic, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
(Sponsored by Deborah Bright)
Critic, Art Institute, Boston (MFA Program)
Artist Lecture: Art Institute, Boston (Sponsored by Christine Collins)
2008 Adjunct Faculty/Critic in Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Guest Critic: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island (Sponsored by Sara Hart)
Artist Lecture: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
(Sponsored by Thad Russell)
2007 Artist Lecture: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (Sponsored by Rebecca
Cummins)
Artist Lecture: University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (Sponsored by Joe Labate) Artist Lecture: Pima College, Tucson, Arizona (Sponsored by Ann Simons-Myers) Artist Lecture: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
(Sponsored by Ann Fessler)
2006 Adjunct Faculty/Critic in Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence,
Rhode Island
2005 Artist Lecture: University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Artist Lecture: Society for Photographic Education Conference, Portland, Oregon 2004 International Center for Photography, New York City
Public collections:
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina (Promised gift) Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
Boston Athenaeum, Boston
David Winston Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
McIninch Art Gallery, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island