In his spare, enigmatic, mixed-media sculptures and installations, Tom Burr explores the ways in which we imbue the spaces and things by which we are surrounded—like clothing, furniture, or the patterns in wood—with our memories and emotions. As he explains: "I know that objects retain the stain of people and that our memory can be physically located out of longing or grief." Though his work is grounded in his own memories, it is deliberately ambiguous, allowing viewers to invest it with their own life experiences. He uses what he calls a "focused spectrum" of humble materials and found objects, including plywood, old blankets and t-shirts, radiators, doors, books, and bits of hardware. By draping a pair of nylons over a radiator, encasing sneakers in yellow Plexiglas, or constructing stripped-down rooms, Burr makes his (and our) memories material.

Tom Burr was born in 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut. Burr has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the world since 1992, in institutions and museums including the Whitney Museum of Art (NYC), Galerie Neu (Berlin), romaromaroma (Rome), Modern Art (London), Andrew Kreps Gallery (NYC), Institute for Visual Culture (Cambridge), American Fine Arts (NYC), and many more. The works of Tom Burr are included in numerous private & public collections, including the New York Public Library, Baltimore Museum, The Israel Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art LA, and more. The artist currently lives and works in New York, NY.

Courtesy of Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY.