New York-born artist John Burt Sanders found inspiration for his latest work from images of deep space, prompting existential questions about our place in the universe and its unimaginable vastness.
Stare long enough at the rich, textured paintings in Dark Mode, a new exhibition featuring Pittsburgh-area painter John Burt Sanders, and you’ll start asking yourself some pretty heady questions like:
What is our role in the universe?
Can we ever really know just how vast the cosmos is?
Sanders’ latest collection is inspired by space telescope images of the universe, inciting us to ask ourselves these and other questions that have come to define the human experience.
The moment I laid eyes on Sanders' new collection, I was instantly transported back to the vibrant pages of 90s glossy mags that fueled my teenage obsession. Floral bodycon mesh dresses, modeled by Kate Moss and her fellow Supermodels, were emblazoned on those iconic spreads. In tribute, I tracked down a knockoff at a big-name department store and proudly wore it to my senior high school banquet in Ohio.
Though I usually shy away from nostalgia, Dark Mode struck a chord with me in all the right ways.
Gallery owner Jeff Jarzynka has this to say about the work of John Burt Sanders, currently showing at the ZYNKA Gallery through Sept. 7, 2024:
“I first experienced John Burt Sanders’ work in 2020 at his exhibit at UnSmoke Systems Artspace in Braddock (a borough east of Pittsburgh). I was immediately taken by his treatment of the painting’s surface – the meandering, thickly painted textural lines. The way they caught the light, like the grooves of a vinyl record, creating highlights and shadow as they danced atop an often muted background. The approach was stunning and engaging, with its surface changing as I moved around it.
I included John in a group show titled Of Light & Line at ZYNKA Gallery the following year. The exhibit featured five artists whose work focused on the use of light and line to interpret the visible or reveal the invisible. John was a perfect fit.
Fast forward to Spring of this year when I met John at his studio to discuss an exhibit for this summer. My intention was to pair John with another complimenting artist I had in mind for a duo show, but that plan was quickly abandoned when I saw the scope of what he had created over the last couple of years.
As we walked through the work, John explained the three unique series I was viewing. While I understood his perspective, I saw things differently. I saw a whole body of work speaking a similar language – works talking to one another, rendering the whole more strongly presented as a collective vs. any singular series. That brings us to John’s first solo exhibit with us. Dark Mode, now on view through September 7th.”
Now, let’s hear from the artist in his own words:
That ubiquitous viewing setting on our devices is not only a visual theme to reduce eye strain but is something of a daily ritual of gradual psychic decomposition.
In this twilight state, cellular renewal occurs – we shed dead cells and generate new ones in an unseen yet constant coming and going of thought/matter within the body.
Here, “dark” also suggests that which eludes direct observation – the work inspired by deep field images captured by the Hubble Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. My initial curiosity about humanity's presence in outer space has mutated over time into a contemplation of the ability to see into the endlessness of the cosmos: what does it mean to see so much? These concerns spurred the evolution of an interlacing linear motif that appears throughout my work. In this series, the linework takes on a new dimension, rendered in black impasto paint atop the deep field imagery.
The convergence of line and image prompts an optical phenomenon: as you shift your perspective, the line merges with the background to create a perceptual blind spot within the image.
The result is a paradoxical experience of an image that conceals the visible and reveals the invisible.
The mutable nature of macro-reality finds its echo in the intimate still-life paintings of [Rachel] Ruysch and [Jan Davidsz] de Heem. Their floral arrangements, captured in various stages of growth and decay, serve as both memento mori and reminders of the continuous exchange of matter.
In Dark Mode, I present loosely rendered still-lives, glazed with thin films of highly saturated pigment. In this context, linear forms snake in and out of view, gesturing toward the uncertainty and formlessness fundamental to change.
John Burt Sanders is an artist from Arcade, New York. He completed his MFA in painting and drawing at Ohio University in 2011 and earned a BFA in painting and art history at State University of New York at Fredonia in 2007. Sanders was awarded an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council in 2014. He currently lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pa.
