Erin Elyse Burns was raised in Reno, Nevada. She earned her BFA from the University of Nevada in 2004. She has lived and worked in Basel, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany and has exhibited her work widely. She completed her MFA at the University of Washington in 2009 and currently resides in Seattle where she is adjunct photography faculty at the University of Washington and North Seattle Community College.

Burns’ artwork occupies territory between image, performance and artifact. She constructs experiences that embrace struggle and the potential for failure, yet simultaneously evoke a sense of the picturesque, the humorous, the vulnerable and the absurd. She utilizes both still and video cameras to transform expectations of authenticity, document and reality. Oftentimes she is cast as a subject in her work, exploring the desire to be both seen by and in control of what the camera witnesses. She creates objects that are given life and context when activated in front of the camera. Concepts of private ritual, identity, physicality and fascinations with the process of learning persist within her work.

Press Links

Nepo 5k: last Saturday's Epic Art Walk City Arts, Rachel Shimp

Fall Equinox: Hungry Ghosts Indianapolis Museum of Art

Experimental Video and Music by Berner, Burns, and Evans – Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center, Seattle The SoundScroll, Eric Scribner

Gallery4Culture Exhibit Highlights Fascination (Fear) with Water Blog4Culture, Sara Edwards

UW MFA 2009 Best Of, Joey Veltkamp

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Choices We Must Make Or Does it Matter Anyway? 2009 UW MFA Catalog, Carol Adelman

Daintily Dizzy Reno News and Review, Miranda Jesch

Education

Solo Exhibitions

Screenings, Lectures, Performances

Selected Group Exhibitions

Grants, Awards, Residencies

Professional Experience