A.K. Burns is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in New York. Using video, installation, sculpture, drawing, and collaboration, Burns explores systems of value and the body as a contentious domain wherein socio-political issues are negotiated. Burns has exhibited internationally including recently at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; MMK Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt, Germany; FRONT International: The Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in Cleveland, OH; The Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, MA; and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, in Portland OR. Burns is currently completing a decade long endeavor titled Negative Space which includes a cycle of four multi-channel video installations that take science fiction as a point of departure. The series of works was introduced with, A Smeary Spot debuting at Participant Inc., NY in 2015, followed by Living Room in 2017 at The New Museum, NY. In 2019 the third work in the series Leave No Trace, premiered at the Julia Stoschek Collection in Dusseldorf. As a frequent collaborator and advocate for labor issues in the Arts, Burns was a founding member of W.A.G.E (Working Artists in the Great Economy) in 2008. A.K. Burns is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, was a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2021 Art Purchase Program, was a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Interdisciplinary Art, a 2016 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University, and a 2015 Creative Capital Foundation Visual Arts Award recipient.
