AINSLEY BURROWS

"There are rare moments when an artist is able to create indelible work with the ability to transcend space and time.  Ainsley Burrows, Jamaican-born and Brooklyn-raised multidisciplinary artist, invites us to witness such a visceral and poignant feat in his newest collection, The Maroons.  Burrows renders the collective black psyche - grounded in historical research and Caribbean culture - spanning over centuries with technical complexity and a poetic raw truth that is both beautiful and heartbreaking. A sort of 'universal specificity', this collection wrangles with the very soul as it examines the psychological, spiritual, and emotional repercussions of slavery, colonization and white supremacy as its ripples are still felt in this day. 

 

The series feels so intentional, as Burrows challenges western ideologies with visual metaphors and smart socio-political imagery in an amalgam of mediums, but never forgets to celebrate blackness in all of its forms: from the royals to the corner-boys, from the slave to the Gods, from the mundane to the abstract and ethereal, there is an undeniable resonance in every color and textural choice carrying this kinetic energy. We move through time with every painting, the ocean comes alive and the sky breaks within every layer of the work, rewarding us with an authentic and powerful experience one could never forget." 

 

— Pages Matam, Award winning Author & Performer