Ed Burkes (b. 1994, Worcester, England) is currently based in Plymouth.

Ed wants to slow things down. He puts into practice various pictorial and textual devices to slow down the comprehension of the work, holding you there in mental gymnastics while your eyes scan the painting past the three second average that museum professionals call grazing. With a nod to George Baselitz’s upside-down paintings, and emboldened by artists Rose Wylie and Mary T. Smith before him, he flips text emblazoned across his paintings on its head, then around corners, along arms and legs, squashes it into corners, makes and corrects spelling mistakes, breaks up words and forces you to put them back together... A flaneur of sorts, Ed’s texts are absorbed from his experiences... He puts his money where his mouth is, practising his own slowing down, looking at the details... Phrases borrowed from shop window fronts on the walk to the studio, plucked from full sentences distilled to their essence. Short active words that punch... Now the eyes wander across the canvas, where clashing patterns, friezes and decorative elements fight for attention. Stop and take it in.’

The tactility of the hook of a pop song or the ribbon of an idiomatic phrase tows a line parallel with my intentions as a painter. My engagement is anchored around an honest attempt to articulate nuanced feeling. 

(Excerpt from writing by Anna Bromwich titled ‘Slowing Down’)