Virtual Studio Visit: Jessica Burko

New Program!

As we embrace social distancing, and look for creative ways to share art and inspiration, CAA is launching a series of Virtual Studio visits. We will host these visits via ZOOM, allowing up to 100 guests to ‘visit’ local artist's studios, ask questions about the artists work and progress, and share in community, from a distance. For our this Virtual Studio Visit, we are pleased to visit the studio of Jessica Burko!

Virtual Studio Visits are free, and open to all!

If you are not already registered in our database, you can close the account login pop-up on the registration page by clicking the X in the top right corner, and then proceed with your registration. 

All attendees must register for this event in order to receive the link and login information for the ZOOM event. Registration automatically closes at 11:59pm EST on April 20. If you are unable to register in time, please contact Erin Becker at ebecker@cambridgeart.org to sign-up for the event.

The link to the ZOOM event will be emailed in the morning on the scheduled event date. 

About Jessica's Artwork: The influence of found materials in my work goes beyond structure as I contemplate their paths before being cast-off. My focus on dresser drawers comes from a history of once private intimate spaces. The drawers I work with are solid and worn, discovered on curbs of older houses appearing to be hauled from basements and attics, crafted seemingly in the 1940s-80s. Their weight, smell, texture, and age create personalities that inspire my imagination to drift to social historical context of their time and the collision of past with present. Within the drawers I create combinations of photography and encaustic, imagery of fragmented self-portraits and items one might hide such as keys and trinkets. The figure speaks to the isolation within the frame and imagined previous inhabitants. Stacked, bundled, alone or grouped drawers with images are connected as a part of a whole yet isolated within their own walls. Some drawers bear images and others exposing their texture, markings, and personalities that build feelings of finding, hiding, forgetting, remembering, and abandoning. The compartmentalization created by the defined walls further suggest a need to stabilize and reconcile both real and imagined past with a concrete present.

About Jessica: Jessica Burko is a mixed-media artist combining traditional photography with encaustic medium. She has been exhibiting her work since 1985 in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States including on the set of Ben Affleck’s 2010 film, The Town, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the Attleboro Arts Museum, the Danforth Museum, the Rochester Museum of Art, NH. Burko earned a BFA in Fine Art Photography from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Imaging Arts and Science from Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition to being a practicing artist, Burko is the Program Manager and Curator at the Photographic Resource Center. She is also an independent curator with more than thirty exhibitions produced since 2000, and her professional background includes the position of Gallery Director at Stonehill College from 2000-06 and from 2007-14 she held the position of Executive Director of the artist collective Boston Handmade. Burko supports artists in achieving their creative and professional goals through lectures, workshops, and partnerships with organizations such as ArtsWorcester and Mass MoCA’s Assets for Artists Program. Jessica Burko is originally from Philadelphia, she works from her studio in Boston’s South End, and lives in Roslindale.

Learn more about Jessica:

Online jessicaburko.com/

On Instagram @jessicaburko