Works

Statement

The work comes as the result of the artist’s process of content curation--- the organization and arrangement of User Generated Content on Social Networking Sites. By recontextualizing and rearranging already existing data, it is transformed and, gains new meaning. Our culture’s desire for the archive, combined with ideas of self-celebrity, originality, proof of existence, and boredom result in a gluttonous and rich world of self generated imagery. With the willful rejection of the roles that privacy, exclusivity, and forgetting play in our culture, the content of the social web is, ostensibly, available for all to consume. What is real or fake? Why do we participate? Why do we record images with the intent to mass distribute? What does it mean? The world of Social Media holds the greatest potential for diversity that humans have ever known. The art practice and investigation illustrates the power of sameness and homogeny (with the ability to get lost in details) in our online behavior within this social environment.

Nia Burks

b. 1984

Education

MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009
MA, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2007
BFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006

Exhibition Record

USERNAME, TAB, PASSWORD, RETURN (Anderson Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2009
Sex Cells (3rd Ward, Brooklyn, Ny), 2009
Electronic Art Exchange Round 1 and 2 (ADA Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2009
Candidacy Exhibition (Plant Zero, Richmond, Va), 2008
It’s Got Layers (Anderson Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2007
Thesis Exhibition (Decker Gallery, Baltimore, Md), 2007
Acting Up/Acting Out (Fox 3, Baltimore, Md), 2007
Big Art Show (Gallery 5, Richmond, Va), 2007
Amendment (Feminist Anthology, Richmond, Va), 2007
0-3900 (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md), 2007
DEVICE (Current Gallery, Baltimore, Md), 2006
Thesis Exhibition (FAB Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2006
Experience in Collective Packing (FAB Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2006
Box Office Hits (Fab Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2006
VIEW/2006 (FAB Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2006
Amendment (Feminist Anthology, Richmond, Va), 2006
Girlie Show (Ethos Café Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2005 (Solo Exhibition)
Amendment (Feminist Anthology, Richmond, Va), 2005
Femme Art (Polka Dot Art Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2004
Amendment (Feminist Anthology, Richmond, Va), 2004
18 Pack (Flat International, Richmond, Va), 2004

Awards/Grants

Runner Up (3rd Ward, Brooklyn, Ny), 2009
Merit Award (FAB Gallery, Richmond, Va), 2006

Press

MFA 2009 Catalog, Virginia Commonwealth University, January 2010
Sex Cells, 3rd Ward, Make Yourself Something, Summer 2009
MICA Masters Graduates (blurb), Art In America, April 2007
Top Ten, Baltimore City Paper, December 2007
This Friday, The Signal, 88.1 WYPR Baltimore, December 2006

 

CV in PDF Format

About

Nia Burks is interested in collecting and organizing objects and ideas. As a child she arranged her belongings (usually the colored pegs from the Light Bright) and made drawings of the details that were continually present in her house, such as the ironing board. On an absolute core level her interests have always laid in multiples, overlooked details, and the compile and organize method of creation. Raised in a small military town in southeastern Virginia, she went on to complete a BFA and two Masters degrees in art, back to back. Nia currently lives and works as an artist on the east coast with her dog and best friend, Grrr.

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