Avital Burg: Textures of Time: Browse & Darby, 19 Cork St, London W1S 3LP

Crean & Company announces its first-ever physical gallery exhibition, focusing on the latest body of work by Brooklyn-based contemporary painter Avital Burg. Taking place at Browse & Darby from 12 October to 3 November, Textures of Time marks Burg’s first ever solo show in the UK with a new series of still lifes and portraits. Across 26 new paintings, the exhibition explores how Burg’s experimentation with the material possibilities of paint creates a compelling observational style, one informed by her personal range of cultural and artistic influences.

Likening her practice to a form of ‘visual journaling’, Burg’s paintings contemplate the essence and passing of time. From urban wildflowers picked near her home to annual birthday self-portraits, each painting carries an anecdotal significance, a memento to a particular moment in Burg’s life. Each one is titled like a caption in a photo album e.g. Paidge Avenue Flowers (week 23) (2021), a reference to the source of her city foraging and the phase of her pregnancy at the time. Based on the direct observation of the world she constructs in her studio, Burg paints using oils and wax, giving a three-dimensional quality to her work – each ephemeral moment rendered with an often-lifelike materiality.