Edwin Burdis is an established British artist whose interdisciplinary practice traverses drawing, painting, sculpture, performance, film, sound and music. Burdis uses his multifaceted practice as a vehicle to fuse his activities in the visual arts, performance and music, instigating collaborations with musicians, singers, dancers, writers and artists.
Home, the environment and contemporary Britain, are recurring themes in Burdis’ practice, explored through striking and surreal imagery and his rich sound vocabulary, with a large helping of humour.
Burdis’ unique approach to combining paint and music in an artwork is epitomised in ‘The Fruit Machine: A Painting and an Opera in Five Parts’. Commissioned by Wysing Arts Centre and toured nationally, ‘The Fruit Machine’ features a large-scale immersive allegorical painting with a libretto, performance and sound work presented from within and around the painting. The work depicts a machine that sits in the green fields of England and is full of desire, absurdity and escapism. The work explores the dynamic relationship between viewer, performer and painting which further heightens our understanding of the world Burdis’ is leading us through.
His recent practice expanded in both scope and ambition as he continued to explore these themes through film and with music collaborations in Wales, exploring the country's proud legacy of voice.
His long standing career in the arts and music led him to producing and directing music videos for emerging and established bands, such as Arctic Monkeys, Rustin Man, Alexis Taylor and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. He was the first artist-in-residence for Domino Records (2017-2018) and continues to be the creative mind behind many of their music videos. Burdis’ has contributed significantly to the British art and music scenes for over two decades and continues to push artistic boundaries between these contemporary fields.
Edwin Burdis (b. 1974, Newcastle, UK) has significantly contributed to the London art scene for over a decade. He received a Creative Wales Award (2016/2017) and an Arts Council England bursary to produce his operatic film work ‘Light Green and Dark Grey (A Personal View)’ (2014). He had a commission and residency at Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2015); was commissioned for SCULPTURE AT Bermondsey Square, London, (2015); and had a residency at Primary, Nottingham, UK (2014).
His work has been presented internationally, including: Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, UK; Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK; MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; MOMA Machynlleth, Wales, UK; ICA, London, UK; TATE Modern and TATE Britain, London, UK; g|39, Cardiff, Wales, UK; Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK; Jerwood Visual Arts, London, UK; Plymouth Art Weekender, Plymouth, UK; Cardiff Contemporary Visual Arts Festival, Wales, UK; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; South London Gallery, London, UK; Focal Point Gallery, Southend, UK; Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK; New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK; Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, D; Skanes Kunstforening, Malmo, Sweden; Gavin Brown Enterprise, New York, USA; and at the art fair ARTISSIMA, Turin, IT (solo stand with VITRINE).
He was the first artist-in-residence at Domino Records.
Nadim Abbas, Nicole Bachmann, Edwin Burdis, Kara Chin, Anaïs Comer, Tim Etchells, Jamie Fitzpatrick, Ludovica Gioscia, Katrin Hanusch, Candice Jacobs, Sophie Jung, Rene Matić, Campbell McConnell, Paula Pinho Martins Nacif, Milly Peck, Sam Porritt, Ralph Pritchard, Natasha Rees, Bioni Samp, James Stopforth, and Charlie Godet Thomas.