Artist Gary Burnley presents a new series of painted collages on paper called Decoys. He began this body of work in 2002 after an extended period of time focusing on public and urban renewal projects. The works on display, selected from a larger group, were intended as preparatory drawings for sculptures, but established their own primacy along the way.

The series’ chronological start, derived from a child’s paint kit, is a colorful, flickering horse’s head, an image that reappears in various guises throughout, including a draped costume. Most of the works are monochromatic, and were inspired by images from old textbooks, encyclopedias and newspaper clippings, their original associative cues now buried under surface manipulation. They telescope a fascination with subterfuge and disguise. “I am interested in acts of diversion and encoded realities,” Burnley says. Shrouded shapes in confined and indeterminate spaces come in and out of view through painted portals, peepholes and patterns.

Burnley’s approach to making art is focused on process, discovery and subverting linear outcomes. His imagery develops through free association and manipulation of visual fragments. Like a magician or quantum physicist, the artist is not deceived into believing surface truths, and sets out to deflect his own and the viewer’s gaze while attempting to grasp residues of reality. He ventures personal terrain, learning unique symbols inside a larger field of archetypes. The new body of work in Decoys demonstrate the companionable flexibility and richness of collage in his enterprise.