Insatiable Fire features new works by Atlanta-based artists Demetri Burke, Noah Reyes and Sergio Suárez. These artists bring contemporary painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking to exciting new terrain at the intersection of narrative figuration and abstraction. Their works deftly open up and explore spaces between individuals and cultures, drawing upon personal and collective histories of...
Insatiable Fire features new works by Atlanta-based artists Demetri Burke, Noah Reyes and Sergio Suárez. These artists bring contemporary painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking to exciting new terrain at the intersection of narrative figuration and abstraction. Their works deftly open up and explore spaces between individuals and cultures, drawing upon personal and collective histories of affection and trauma, navigation of borders, translation and the porosity of language.
The Mesoamerican post-classical ceremony of Fuego Nuevo (New Fire) symbolizes the renewal of the universe and a collaborative effort to delay the end of the world, as Sergio Suárez described in his recent solo exhibition with that title. Demetri Burke evokes fire as “always steady, but never still.” The artworks in this exhibit reflect these associations, feeling situated both in the present and in dream-like or mythic spaces, with forms incessantly generating and dissipating. Burke incorporates collage of found imagery to rupture the cohesive picture space of his figurative paintings. Reyes densely aggregates layers of gesso and marker to create an atmospheric personal iconography of forms-in-flux. Suárez displays meticulously carved and inked woodcut matrices embellished by accompanying sculptural forms. The works elicit a palpable intimacy with the viewer, inviting close looking and contemplation of renewal through material process.
Artist Bios:
Demetri Burke (B. 1998) is an artist based in Atlanta. He holds a B.F.A. Degree in Drawing, Painting and Printmaking from Georgia State University. His work features amalgamations of collaged, abstracted and realistic imagery that explore memory and Black Southern identity. He is a finalist for the AXA Art Prize with recent exhibits at MINT gallery, Nichols Atlanta, Welancora Gallery in Brooklyn, Melanie Flood Projects in Portland and Just Lookin’ Gallery in Maryland. His work has been reviewed in ArtsATL and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In 2021 he was an Andrew Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellow at the High Museum of Art and in 2021-2 he was a MINT Leap Year Artist.
Noah Reyes (B.1994) is an artist/writer based in Atlanta. After having obtained his BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Noah returned to his hometown of Atlanta to entrench himself in the city’s vibrant arts and culture. Writing reviews and proposals for shows, Noah hopes to blur lines between artist/writer/curator. He is interested in experimental curation/art experiences, illuminating spaces in between cultures, and exposing what grows from the cracks between art and society. His writing has been published in Art Papers, Burnaway, and ArtsATL.
Sergio Suárez (B.1995) is a Mexican-born, Atlanta-based visual artist and printmaker. He graduated from Georgia State University in 2021 with a B.F.A in Drawing and Painting, with a concentration in Printmaking. His practice is prompted by an interest in translation, and explores the structure of materiality, porosity of language, images, and artifacts. His work has been shown in Atlanta at Whitespace, Day & Night Projects, THE END Project Space, ShowerHaus Gallery, the Consulate General of Mexico in Atlanta, Take it Easy Gallery, and Atlanta Contemporary. He has exhibited internationally at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair in London, the Haugesund International Relief Festival in Norway, OPED Space in Tokyo, and the Ionian Arts Center in Greece. He lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia where he is part of the Studio Artist Program at Atlanta Contemporary. He has two cats.
