1275 Minnesota St /
Nancy Toomey Fine Art
Claire Burbridge: Here and in Between
Formally trained at the Ruskin School of Fine Art at Oxford University, Claire Burbridge creates drawings that are not strictly botanical illustrations, but depict evolving universes of complex, sometimes imaginary, ecosystems. Rendered with extreme detail, they have a sense of both reality and the fantastical. Exhibiting the exuberance of growth, as well as its inevitable companion—death and decay—the works explore the conscious and unconscious, light and dark, and give form to the formless. The very process of life seems to flourish and play out before our eyes, displaying her remarkably lush, detailed compositions to full effect.
London-born Burbridge, now located in Ashland, Oregon, chose the exhibition title Here and in Between to reflect her way of working. Spending months immersed in one drawing at a time, a piece takes shape and comprises a complete world, a fully conceived creation evolved to its most detailed possible manifestation. Burbridge describes finishing a drawing as “going into a place that is in between worlds, a state of being-ness and latent form.” Primarily rendered in pen and ink on archival paper, her current body of work consists of marks, dots, and dashes that provide a matrix to organize the chaos of nature into cohesive form.
The title of the exhibition also refers to a small selection of pieces that would normally be hidden away, but will be shown in tandem with the highly finished, definitive works that form the heart of the show. Each of these drawings, which she considers were born from the in between, hold elements of the more highly conceived work. Complete works in their own right, they articulate what Burbridge wanted to say in the language of intelligent observation. They provide a way to listen into a realm less dense than that of visible forms.
The technical precision and intricate detail of each piece invites the viewer to look more closely, magnifying the intelligent order and spontaneous beauty that make up the natural world. The observer is offered the opportunity to use their capacity of feeling rather than intellect to more deeply connect with, decipher, and, above all, enjoy a place more liminal, free of control, and full of expansion and possibility.
The public is invited to meet artist Claire Burbridge at the gallery Saturday, May 8, from 2 pm to 5 pm.