Berry Campbell is pleased to present Lilian Thomas Burwell: Soaring. This exhibition marks the esteemed Maryland-based artist’s first solo gallery exhibition in New York. The exhibition title, Soaring, is an homage to the late Dr. David Driskell’s essay, Soaring with a Painterly Voice, written on the occasion of Burwell’s 1997 survey exhibition at Hampton University Museum, Virginia. Driskell described Burwell’s work as, “transcendental in showing stylistic diversity of earthly beauty and cosmic vision.”
Lilian Thomas Burwell: Soaring, organized by guest curator, Melissa Messina, highlights the dynamic transition in Burwell’s abstract visual language from two-dimensional painterly planes to three-dimensional sculptural forms. Burwell’s paintings from the late 1970s and early 1980s employ a distinctly bold palette and reference organic forms found in natural floral and earthly phenomena. The exhibition centers on the painting Skybound (1984), which marks the first time that the artist cut into her canvas, creating positive and negative space. This pivotal act gave way to Burwell’s examination of form, bringing forth Burwell’s signature style of three-dimensional, painted wall sculpture. These wall sculptures would become the artist’s signature focus for more than two decades.
Lilian Thomas Burwell: Soaring opens at Berry Campbell, New York April 22 and continues through May 28, 2021. The exhibition is accompanied by a 20-page exhibition catalogue with an essay by Melissa Messina. On the occasion of the exhibition, Berry Campbell will digitally screen the documentary, Kindred Spirits: Artists Hilda Wilkinson Brown and Lilian Thomas Burwell, on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 4 pm - 10 pm and May 8, 2021, 1 - 5 pm.
Lilian Thomas Burwell: Soaring, organized by guest curator, Melissa Messina, highlights the dynamic transition in Burwell’s abstract visual language from two-dimensional painterly planes to three-dimensional sculptural forms. Burwell’s paintings from the late 1970s and early 1980s employ a distinctly bold palette and reference organic forms found in natural floral and earthly phenomena. The exhibition centers on the painting Skybound (1984), which marks the first time that the artist cut into her canvas, creating positive and negative space. This pivotal act gave way to Burwell’s examination of form, bringing forth Burwell’s signature style of three-dimensional, painted wall sculpture. These wall sculptures would become the artist’s signature focus for more than two decades.
Lilian Thomas Burwell: Soaring opens at Berry Campbell, New York April 22 and continues through May 28, 2021. The exhibition is accompanied by a 20-page exhibition catalogue with an essay by Melissa Messina. On the occasion of the exhibition, Berry Campbell will digitally screen the documentary, Kindred Spirits: Artists Hilda Wilkinson Brown and Lilian Thomas Burwell, on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 4 pm - 10 pm and May 8, 2021, 1 - 5 pm.
