Avital Burg was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her artistic training all over the world: at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem; Hatahana School of Drawing and Painting, Tel Aviv; The Slade School of Art, London; and the New York Studio School.
Burg’s paintings are based on the direct observation of the world she constructs in her studio, incorporating her physical and personal surroundings. She engages in visual journaling, painting wildflowers from her neighbourhood and red brick walls reminiscent of her early years in Jerusalem. Portraits, self-portraits and architecture frequently appear too, as a way of linking the current moment with historical pasts such a Roman Egyptian mummy portraits and the Early Renaissance and Baroque periods. Her method of isolating mundane objects and painting them after many hours of observation is often a way of contemplating slowness; in order to reflect on how the present moment encapsulates different times, her paintings use dried paint mixed with fresh paint, with some canvases completed over three or four previous works.
Recent solo shows of Burg's work have taken place at Slag Gallery, New York and at the Neve Schechter Gallery, Tel Aviv, as well as other galleries. Two-person exhibitions have included Arts at AJU, Los Angeles, and Club Caltural Matienzo, Buenos Aires, and she has exhibited in several group shows in New York and Tel Aviv. She is the recipient of several grants and was the artist in residence of the Peleh Residency in California in 2019.
Burg's works also form part of many collections world-wide, among them the Louis-Dreyfus Family Collection, NY; The Bank Leumi art collection, Israel; and Mr. Dov Shiff's collection, Israel.