Viridian Artists is pleased to present "No Certainties,” an exhibition of collage and assemblage by Ellen Burnett.

The exhibition opens June 20 and continues through July 15, 2023, with an opening reception Thursday, June 22, 6–8pm and a closing reception Saturday, July 15, 4–6pm. The artist will give a talk on the last Saturday of the show and will be present on Saturday afternoons during the exhibition to talk with visitors about her work.

Many of the artworks in this exhibit are small works, created during these recent times of disruption. As the artist says, these were “times that hold the unpleasant threat of the unexpected” and "My life feels ragged and untidy / And space is limited / So the works grow smaller…”

Ellen Burnett’s art contains narratives, and possess titles, that speak of moments both remembered and imagined. The titles the artist has assigned to each piece illustrate her interpretation of the work and how it spoke to her, and give the viewer the chance to observe the world through her gaze. For instance, “In the Time of the Virus” was created at the beginning of the Covid quarantine, with the artist painting her way out through a portal into an indistinct future. “Creation,” made during a more hopeful time before the pandemic, looks in innocence towards a season when life begins anew. “A Misbegotten Guess” speaks of general disenchantments and things saved for ages in sorrow and hope.

There are two groups of works presented here. One is a series created while the artist was based in St Kitts and experimenting with PLA (polylactic acid), a bioplastic used in 3-D printers. The rejected pieces from the failed prints generated a great amount of material, and inspired the creation of these colorful and dynamic pieces.

The other collage and assemblage works are composed of gifts from friends and objects found; things which the artist feels have potential beyond their initial existence, and which become the basis of complex and deeply satisfying narrative works that speak to one another, and to the observer.

Ellen Burnett came to Viridian as a winner in the gallery’s 2017 International Competition, juried by Susan Thompson, an assistant curator at the Guggenheim Museum. In 2014, the artist was selected for the Director’s Choice exhibit, Viridian’s offshoot of the juried shows that gives exposure to outstanding artists. This will be the artist’s second solo exhibit at Viridian. In addition, she has been invited to participate in Art Week 2023 at the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum in Japan in August.

I am interested in things that have potential beyond their initial existence; they speak to me. There is an idea of alchemy, of making something from nothing; constructing sculptural compositions combining found objects and mixed media in layered, (mostly) narrative works, transforming that which would have been thrown away, creating stories and making comment on my view. My life. This world.

(Ellen Burnett)