The Inventive Artworks of John Buron - Inside Art with Michael Rose

The Inventive Artworks of John Buron - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

John Buron, a transplant to RI, recently exhibited two of his newest artworks at the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative's mill gallery. An artist of many media, Buron’s sense of wit and inventiion shapes an inquisitive body of work that is entirely his own.

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Buron works in media as varied as gouache, graphite, photo-transfers, collage, sculpture, installation, and even video. Speaking of his tendency to experiment, Buron said, “I have been working in multiple mediums for as long as I can remember. I put on a performance in college where I convinced a local elementary school to let me use their stage and recruited some art school friends to be actors. There has been a gradual addition of new mediums over the years. For example, I started experimenting with audio collage a while back, then naturally combined that with video and introduced those into installations and sculptures that also contain two-dimensional elements. Usually, the subject or imagery comes first, then I choose the medium which tends to evolve as I execute a piece. Deliver the idea by any means necessary I always say.”

 

Buron’s most recent sculpture and installation was constructed largely of cardboard and other malleable lightweight materials. One piece, titled Mom and Dad Believed Many Things, is an enormous Lysol aerosol can donned with angel wings. The other is a reconstruction of his parents’ living room executed in a dizzyingly forced perspective. Both offer their share of surprises and are indicative of an artist who is deeply curious.

 

 

Buron began making art at an early age and his creative education has taken a variety of forms. Speaking of the influence from an arty parent, he explains, “My mother held painting classes every Friday night off and on while I was growing up. I think the lure as a five-year-old had to do with the wonderful smell of paint and turpentine wafting up the stairs, and also just wanting in on the action. I remember painting one picture with them, a teddy bear from a birthday card. I probably lost interest after reaching my goal of inclusion. She continued painting her entire life, which was an inspiration, and she was always very supportive of my artistic endeavors, whether she liked them or not. So my mother definitely sparked my creative side early on.”

 

Buron went on to earn a BFA at the University of Texas at Austin, where he concentrated in painting, lithography, and photography. He found inspiration in the work of famed California conceptual artist John Baldessari, whose tendency towards humor and critique found their way into Buron’s work, too. The punk scene in Austin was also informative for the artist in his early years.

 

Much of Buron’s work draws on the panoply of American culture. Describing where he gets his ideas, Buron explains in part, “My inspiration generally comes from living in this frequently absurd society we are all part of, hence the American culture imagery and subject matter. I use vintage magazines, video and 8mm home movies I find at yard sales in a lot of my work. I also gather contemporary imagery from similar sources and combine them with mid-century imagery. I have also used family photographs that I scan and manipulate, transfer to paper and paint and draw on them.”

 

 

Incursion, the sculptural living room installation he recently exhibited at Pawtucket Arts Collaborative, was inspired directly by a photo of the artist’s father relaxing in a recliner while watching TV. For an artist who often pulls the subject matter of his art from the quotidian realities of suburban life, a seemingly simple image became fodder for an intensely studied and constructed space that felt both convincing and disorienting. Largely painted white, the invented space is disrupted by a colorful Bluejay entering through a relief of a window.

 

Looking forward, Buron’s knack for invention and experimentation will likely play a role in his next project. Asked if he has any exciting plans, Buron says, “Something new always comes into my orbit eventually. I learned and video taped myself performing some intentionally simple magic tricks that I included in my last installation shown at AS220. I am hoping to learn some more involved tricks to include in something somehow in the future. Right now I plan to focus on getting my current installation and sculpture into other gallery spaces so I can share it with my fellow humans.”

 

Learn more about John Buron’s diverse body of work at his website www.johnburon.com.