Jessica Burko
59 Wareham Street, 5th Fl.
My current series, Found/Gone, is a combination of photography, encaustic, and found wooden objects. The influence of found materials in my work goes beyond structure as I contemplate their path before being cast-off. 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. Within a selection of the drawers I combine photography with encaustic, transferring the images into the encaustic layers. The weight of the objects, the 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. The imagery in this ongoing consists of fragmented self-portraits, along with photographs of items one might hide in a bedroom dresser such as keys and trinkets, items of hopes and wishes. The unwanted aspect of the objects represent life disappeared and I’m filled with family narratives of evacuation, forced or chosen, and whispers of escape united with emergence and becoming free. The images are connected as a part of a whole yet isolated within their own walls. The compartmentalization created by the defined walls further suggest a need to stabilize and reconcile both real and imagined past with a concrete present.
Bio
Jessica Burko has been an exhibiting artist since 1985 and has displayed work in solo and group shows throughout the United States. Burko is originally from Philadelphia and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She holds 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, Cambridge, MA. 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, from 2007-14 she held the position of Executive Director of the artist collective Boston Handmade, and from 2016 to 2019 she was the Marketing Director at Kingston Gallery. Burko's work in the arts community allows her to foster and strengthen connections between working artrepreneurs. She supports artists in achieving their creative and professional goals through lectures, workshops, and partnerships with organizations such as ArtsWorcester, Worcester, MA, Mass MoCA’s Assets for Artists Program, North Adams, MA, and the South Shore Arts Center, Cohasset, MA.