Angela Burson

Angela Burson holds a BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She uses various media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, and needlework. Influenced by anachronistic images of fashion and personal objects, her paintings feature figures, their belongings, and interior spaces that indicate complex psychological and social relationships with one another. The objects, personages, or fragments of a body are often culled from Burson’s existing family photographs. Now based in Savannah, Georgia, she has exhibited widely, including at the SCAD Museum of Art, Hashimoto Contemporary, Tong Art Advisory SoHo Salon, Gallery Most, and Galería Rafael Pérez Hernando.

Artist Interview

What inspires you to paint headless figures and fragmented bodies, and what do you want people to feel or understand when they see your work?

The figure is cropped or headless because I want the subject to be ambiguous. If I add the face everything changes, and the painting becomes about that specific person. Cropping a figure is also a way for me to paint something personal without giving away too much. I am interested in painting details without revealing their whole identity. When I am looking at people, I notice details about their shoes, socks, jewellery, what they are holding, and how they style and present themselves. People watching has fascinated me since I was a child, and this translates into my work.

Many of your paintings depict interior spaces with intricate patterns and textures. What role do these environments play in your storytelling, and how do you approach the balance between realism and abstraction within your compositions?

When I am constructing a space, I like to start with an object like a chair or a couch and build the composition around the placement of these objects. After I get everything in place, I add a pattern on a rug, chair or wall depending on the painting. The patterns are often flat and repetitive, and I like how they break up the three-dimensionality of the space. The colour and patterns create an ambiguous temporality giving the space a timeless quality. Painting the patterns is one of my favourite parts of the process.

Get access to the full interview, grab your copy of the Autumn 2024 Edition of Art Seen.
See more from the artist at www.angelaburson.com