Perception

Burke was born in Buffalo, New York. In 2002 he graduated from UNLV with a BFA. Critics have described his style as a continuation of Op Art – “Burke treats Op as a springboard into something bigger and bolder and more muscular” (David Pagel, Los Angeles Times, Feb 27, 2015) – but the artist himself downplays that association. “I’d rather be taken for a formalist than a practitioner of Op-art,” he said in the commentary for the show that Pagel was reviewing. (Dutch Jailbreak). In 2011 he was quoted as saying, “In simplest terms, I think my contribution is an idea about what makes good design in painting ... Utopian and psychedelic … accidentally mesmerizing, spatially ambiguous, sexy plastic painting.”  Burke has used illusionary effects in his work throughout his career, making a flat image appear to curve out or in, or warp to one side. He generates the shapes in a computer before transferring them to the work surface.