Rachel Burgess

Unknown Flower

2023

Rachel Burgess is a visual artist based in New York. Originally from Boston, she received a B.A. in Literature from Yale University and an M.F.A. in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts. Her interest in narrative and sequential forms continues to inform her work. She is the recipient of a 2021 Artist Development Program Award from the International Print Center of New York (NY); previous solo/two-person exhibitions include 3S Artspace (NH), Susan Eley Fine Art (NY), the University of Connecticut Art Gallery in Stamford (CT) and the Jonathan Frost Gallery (ME); previous group exhibitions include the International Print Center of New York (NY), 20/20 Gallery at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NY), the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art (NY), the Monmouth Museum (NJ), the South Bend Museum of Art (IN), the American University Museum (Washington, D.C.), the Pyramida Center for Contemporary Art (Israel) and the Seoul Museum of Art (Korea). Burgess’ work has been supported by residencies at Acadia National Park and Zea Mays Printmaking, and has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Drawing Magazine, Introspective Magazine, 3x3 Magazine and CMYK. The coast of Maine has been the main source of inspiration for Rachel Burgess for many years. Using monotype, she creates iconic scenes that explore the relationship between experience and myth. By editing, abstracting, printing and reversing her landscapes, she gives physical form the process we perform internally when we convert our lives into stories. The results are places as seen through the mind’s eye, fabricated versions of real scenes. To make her work, Burgess begins by drawing outdoors, on location. She doesn’t use photographs because she wants to honor her instinctual editing choices, capturing her reaction to a place, rather than the place itself. Afterwards, in a print studio, she makes monotypes based on her drawings. Monotype is a form of printmaking that yields just one image. To make a monotype, Burgess applies oil-based ink to plexiglass plates, using rollers, Q-tips, tarlatan, paper towels and bits of cardboard to add and remove colors. The creation of the image must be accomplished in a day because the ink dries quickly. The pulling of the print, which takes a few minutes, is followed by a wiping away of the image from the plate. The initial “painting” is lost, and a new work on paper is created, mimicking the way we transform fleeting experiences into lasting stories. The final product is a mirror image of the original, a metaphor for the fictionalization and abstraction that occurs in our minds.