2025
Exhibition Residencies
Burke’s work is primarily concerned with perceptions of space and time and takes the form of installations, photographs, video and sound works. Generated in a site-responsive manner these subtle but ‘logical interventions’ offer the viewer the opportunity to ‘reassess and acknowledge the world that surrounds us’.
In using the opportunities provided by existing spaces, Burke encourages both an inward ‘analysis and contemplation’ but also an ‘interplay with nature’ that questions accepted representations by affirming the role of the viewer in constructing the environment.
‘I hope to draw out a certain inbetween-ness in the potential in forms of space and place, to assert the present and make concrete the now.’
Karl Burke was born in Sligo, Ireland in 1974 and graduated with a Diploma in fine art followed by a degree in interactive multi-media from Dun Laoghaire College of Art, Design and Technology.
Karl‘s work is primarily concerned with perceptions of space and time and takes the form of installations, photographs, video and sound works. An ongoing body of work " wooden drawings " involves the placement of uniform lengths of processed wood in various situations in a particular environment, specifically about different aspects of that space or place.
A site-specific practice these subtle but logical interventions offer the viewer the opportunity, in a beautifully simple way, to reassess and acknowledge the world that surrounds us. By using the physical language of three dimensions, his work endeavours to encourage an inward analysis and contemplation. In the same way that a mirror reflects the world around us, these interventions similarly encourage inner reflection.
Karl has shown widely in Ireland and abroad with a solo show in Wexford Arts Centre in November 2008 and the Niland Gallery in Sligo during the summer of 2009. Karl has also shown in several galleries in London and Sydney with a residency and show in the Mattress factory in Pittsburg. He will be producing a solo show in Washington DC this coming winter.
Karl also produces music under the name Karl Him with one album released in 2001 “ Electronic Lament “ followed by an album release with the project “Sending Letters to the Sea “ in 2009. Music compilations include, When It's Ajar - The Music of Daniel Figgis, Deaf ( Dublin Electronic Arts Festival ) 2006 and 2008. Karl has also produced several soundtracks for theatre, working with the Dublin-based company Loose Canon and the Broken Talkers. Film and video art soundtracks include working with artists Clodagh Emoe, Martin Healy and Mark Garry.
Past Residencies