Gallery SATORI is pleased to present Flying Erase Head, Calvin Burton’s first solo exhibition in New York. In Burton’s paintings, photographic imagery forms both the locus of a pictorial strategy and a foil to more underlying concerns about the nature of representation. Through his combination of non-objective intuitive processes and his use of sources that are alternately iconic, banal, personal and historical (subject matter includes Yellowstone Park, Arcosanti – a commune in the Arizona desert, and early 20th century skyscrapers), Burton explores the linguistic potential and limitations of his medium. The resulting paintings waver between transcendent aspiration and the here-and-now quality of the materials, blurring the separation in the process.

The title of the show refers to an obsolete video technology, which allowed relatively seamless editing from one shot to another when recording on VHS. Burton is drawn to the notion of borders, the act of crossing from one side to another, and calling attention to the space in between. Whether derived from photographs of quintessentially American landscapes or distilled into geometric structures through formal calculation and experimentation, his paintings gravitate toward the precarious moments of transition between visual constructs. Striving for balance, Burton calls fresh attention to painting as a metaphor for the relationship between thought and language.

Calvin Burton received his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BA in Mathematics and Visual Arts from Brown University. Selected exhibition venues include Branch Gallery, Durham, NC; Samson Projects, Boston, MA; ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA; Raw & Co Gallery, Cleveland, OH; Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA; Appetite, Buenos Aires; Shore Institute of Contemporary Art, Long Branch, NJ; Galería Ramón Alva de la Canal, Veracruz; His work has been reviewed in Art In America, The Durham Herald-Sun, and the Cleveland Scene.