Brian Burnett

Brian Burnett

Brian Burnett - Biography

Born in South Porcupine, Ontario, Brian Burnett studied at the New School of Art in Toronto from 1974 to 1976 under local luminaries Graham Coughtry and Gordon Rayner. Burnett’s early work was largely figurative, and his fanciful, humorous, character-based paintings of gyrating colour placed him at the forefront of a return to figurative painting in Canada in the early 80s. Burnett soon became involved in the founding of ChromaZone, an artist collective in Toronto focused on figurative art. ChromaZone and the image movement that it spawned only added to Burnett’s reputation as an artist making new and exciting work.

While Burnett continued to live and work in Toronto for most of his career, save for a brief stint in Vancouver in 1985, the artist went on to have extensive solo and group exhibitions throughout the decade at Isaacs and later at Gallery One on Scollard Street. As his subject matter evolved to capturing cityscapes, his artistic voice fully blossomed and critics and the public responded with resounding enthusiasm. Christopher Hume of the Toronto Star describes Burnett’s work of this period as some of the “finest, most assured urban landscapes being produced in Toronto . . . a startling record of a city and the interplay between nature and man-made structures.”

Whatever the subject matter – be they dramatic still life interiors, pastel-coloured odes to Paris and Berlin, impressionist evocations of the various moods of city parks or, in his latest works, the fusion of digital methods with acrylic paint, Burnett is always experimenting and always pushing his artistic practice in fascinating, unexpected directions.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022 Paintings 1988-2015, Gallery Gevik, Toronto, ON
2003 Sparrow, Gallery One, Toronto, ON.
2002 Wired Urban Birds, Gallery One, Toronto, ON.
2000 Acquisitions and Mergers, Gallery One, Toronto, ON.
2000 Urban Eco, V. MacDonnell Gallery, Toronto, ON.
1997 Velvet Void, Gallery One, Toronto, ON.
1995 City Sanctuary, Modern Fuel Gallery, KAA. Kingston, ON.
1994 Iconograph-a-Tree Paintings, Gallery One. Toronto, ON.
1992 Neo-Baroque Paintings, Gallery One. Toronto, ON.
1992 Burnett: Simultaneity, Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, ON.
1991 Brian Burnett: New Paintings, Gallery One. Toronto, ON.
1990 Brian Burnett: Computer Drawings, Gallery One, Toronto, ON.
1989 Brian Burnett, Gallery One, Toronto, ON.
1988 Brian Burnett, Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON.
1988 Brian Burnett, Timmins National Museum, Timmins, ON.
1987 Brian Burnett, The Gallery And Library, Cambridge, ON.
1986 Brian Burnett: Vancouver Series, Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON.
1986 Studio show, Vancouver, BC.
1986 Brian Burnett, The Station Gallery, Whitby, ON.
1985 Brian Burnett, Lynnwood Arts Centre, Simcoe, ON.
1984 Brian Burnett, Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON.
1983 Brian Burnett, Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON.
1983 Brian Burnett: Paintings, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, AB.
1981 Brian Burnett: New Paintings, Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON.
1980 Brian Burnett: Paintings, Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON.

Collections
A.E. Lepage Ltd., Toronto, ON.
American Express Canada Ltd., Toronto, ON.
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON.
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Art Gallery of Peel, Burlington, ON.
Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON.
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, ON.
BPA Financial Group, Mississauga, ON. Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON.
Canadian Overseas Investments, Toronto, ON.
C.I.L., Toronto, ON.
Cineplex Odeon Corporation, Toronto, ON.
City of Toronto, ON.
Crown Life Insurance, Toronto, ON.
Dupont of Canada, Toronto, ON.
Fogler Rubinoff, Toronto, ON.
General Electric Corporation, Toronto, ON.
Glaxo Wellcome Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON.
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB.
Goldfarb Consultants, London, England, and Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Hart House, University of Toronto, ON.
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON.
KPMG LLP, Toronto, ON.
McLaren Art Gallery, Barrie, ON.
McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton, ON.
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, ON.
Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre.
Midland Doherty Ltd., Toronto, ON.
Museum London, London, ON.
Norcen Energy Resources, Toronto, ON.
North American Trust Co., Toronto, ON.
Progressive Insurance, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Government of Ontario Art Collection, Queen's Park, Toronto.
Rogers Cable TV, Toronto, ON.
Sarnia Public Library and Art Gallery, Sarnia, ON.
Security Trust Co., Toronto, ON.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, North York, ON.
Telus Mobility Inc., Toronto, ON.
Thorne Riddell, Toronto, ON.
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON.
University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB.
University of Toronto Faculty Club.
Zeidler Roberts Partnership, Toronto, ON.

Artist Specialization: Expressionist Landscape & Interiors - Brian Burnett's paintings have a distinct style — his work is easily identifiable, even though he has gone through some major changes in his subject and medium. While at the Isaacs Gallery, Burnett went from painting mostly people and animals to painting urban landscapes and interiors. The artist also experimented with materials a bit during his time with the Isaacs Gallery, which would lead to later series entirely on velvet (1996 — 1997), suiting (1997), and even some work with computer drawings and light boxes (1990). All of Burnett's work has an environmental or ecological undertone, and often spiritual or other-worldly elements.