JanKossen Contemporary is pleased to present Behind The Glass, Michael Burges’ premier Solo Show in New York, opening on 20 October, 2016 and on view through 28 January, 2017. This exhibit showcases Burges’ most recent works from his Reverse Glass Paintings series, which he has been working on since 2009. Employing a unique technique of reverse glass painting with gold and platinum leaf, Burges creates large works with an extraordinary color presence, aesthetic precision and visual impact.

In his most recent series Reverse Glass Paintings, Burges uses plexiglass instead of canvas to create a “window” to an alternative reality, and bends the rules of traditional painting techniques. Using a multi-layering process, Burges freely plays with combinations of colors, experimenting with various methods of applying paint with rags and sponges; for his backgrounds the artists uses precious metals including platinum, copper and gold leaf. What the viewer sees is an abstract painting, free of pre-conceptions - the viewer is invited to freely interpret the art - Burges hence invites us to an open, non-verbal dialogue.

Burges has been exploring the possibilities of color, space, their relationship as well as the effect it produces on the viewer and vice versa since 1983. His approach to painting is often described as a ‘science of art’, comparable to the visual expression of scientific laws and hypothesis. There is however a spiritual quality to his work, embodying elements of Buddhism principles, suggesting the influence of the artist’s background in Comparative Religions, Ethnology and Indiology.

Michael Burges was born in Duesseldorf, Germany in 1954. He currently lives and works in Dusseldorf and Italy. He attended Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf, where he studies social sciences. Shortly thereafter he studied Comparative Religions, Ethnology and Indology at Friedrich-Wilhelms University Bonn, Germany. Burges began painting in 1981 and is influenced by American Painter Douglas Swan. In 1983 he became engrossed in the style of abstract painting that has persisted as his method of expression through to the present. JanKossen Contemporary has chosen to showcase his work as it reflects strongly upon the aesthetic and conceptual intentions of the gallery.

He has had installations spanning internationally, including exhibitions in Paris, Belgium, Munich, Los Angeles, and Miami.