Patrick Burns

"Lichen Garden 01" Mixed Media Painting

2025

Patrick Burns Charles Town, WV b. 1987 Patrick Burns is an interdisciplinary artist based in West Virginia whose work focuses on the peculiarities and contradictions of American culture and the complex narratives surrounding its history. Appropriating found materials imbued with both latent and blatant symbolism regarding the American ethos, the artist transforms everyday objects to simultaneously highlight and subvert their meanings. Raised in a rural, Civil War-era town in West Virginia within a bi-racial military family, Burns’ upbringing provided an unobstructed view of the many overlapping identities inherent to the American experience. Multiculturalism, pride, nationalism, racism, and clashing ideologies are all integral to his world view and artistic practice. Burns’ work has been shown internationally, with featured placement at CONTEXT Art Miami and SCOPE Art Miami as well as exhibitions at PAGODA RED in Chicago, IL, Ann Nathan Gallery in Chicago, IL, Amstel Gallery in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Gallery Victor in Chicago, IL. ------------------------------------------------------------- "Concrete Gardens" is a body of work that translates Patrick Burns’ deep love for the land into richly textured, mixed-media monochrome paintings. Raised on a farm in rural West Virginia, Burns developed a rugged resilience and a deep-rooted connection to nature. His journey took him from the fields to the football field—balancing life as a college quarterback and a passionate artist—eventually earning his MFA. Today, that journey leads him to urban gardening, where he digs deeply—both into the soil and into himself—uncovering stories in hemp, blossoms, and found mementos buried in the earth. Using press molds, tree branches, sand, gravel and many, many layers of paint, Burns creates surreal, botanical landscapes that balance the delicate imagery of flowers and plants against the strong tactile qualities of concrete, sand, plaster and gravel. Found objects unearthed during his gardening are tucked within each composition, layering the abstract settings with hidden details and personal touches. The monochrome finishes of his Concrete Gardens explore the emotional depth of color. “Blue is much more than a hue,” he says. When he couldn’t find the right shade to express himself, Burns pushed beyond the traditional palette, hand-mixing pigments in an effort to capture the complexity of his blues. Inspired by the rigidity of his urban surroundings, Burns uses his Concrete Gardens paintings to explore the contrasts of his horticulture hobby, placing the perceived femininity of flower gardening against his own masculinity. By the artist’s own words, “I played football in college. I lift weights. Hard physical work is my modus operandi. If I were to turn my passion for gardening into art, what would that look like?” Lingering on this juxtaposition, Burns subverts the perceived femininity of mothering a garden with masculine visual elements such as bold colors, rough materials and strong, well-defined forms – concrete gardens.