Andrew J Burford is a queer artist who was raised in Cape Town, South Africa and currently resides in Berlin. After completing his degree in London he moved to Australia where he developed his practice. Andrew has since spoken and been exhibited internationally in the USA, Australia, Germany, South America and the United Kingdom. Through the use of multimedia Andrew uses his practice to seek an understanding of the fractured modes of being within cultures of masculine display and the construction of white masculinity, both historically and in contemporarily.
Andrew’s practice focuses on the development of collections of related works without the confines of an entirely congruous practice. He does, however, often borrow the visual strategies of advertising with an ironic or humorous tone – an attempt to subvert the kind of language that often underwrites our desires and impulses. He utilises repetition in his work as a means to debunk myths and to remove meaning from long-standing ideologies of gender, sexuality and whiteness.
Most recently Andrew has been focussing on the construction of white masculinity. Having grown up with British parents who emigrated to Africa, he has been reflecting on this troubled history and the complicated layers of colonialism, gender, family, and race. Like previous works, Andrew navigates these topics through the lens of the working class, who in many ways, are the bedrock of identity and culture formation.
Awards / Residencies
2018 KunstOrt ElevenArtSpace – Börstingen, Germany
2016 Picture Berlin – Berlin, Germany
2014 Art Farm – Nebraska, USA
2012 The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award Finalist – Australia
2011 Winner Kodak Professional Excellence in Photomedia – Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2022 Re-connect Art, Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic
2021 I think I’m done with the kitchen table, baby, WIR WIR, Berlin, Germany
2021 I found out – Galerie Tokonomo, Kassel, Germany
2018 Mighty Good Men – Galerie Im Turm, Berlin, Germany
2014 Armour – Platform, Melbourne, Australia
2013 The Man, The Legend – Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 Queering the kiez – Interiors to being, Berlin, Germany 2019 Same time, Same place – Twenty Years, Berlin, Germany
2018 FLUENT 1 – Osnabrück, Germany
2017 Posture – Superchief Gallery, NYC, USA
2017 III Video Art Festival – nodoCCS, Caracas, Venezuela
2017 London Photo Diary – London, UK
2017 Johnny Guitar – Glogauerair, Berlin, Germany
2016 Artist Presentation – Tete, Berlin, Germany
2013 Filling The Void – Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2011 Hung – Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2011 Kodak Salon – CCP, Melbourne, Australia
2011 Typical Girls – The Grace Darling, Melbourne, Australia
2009 All Photographers Now! – NYPH’09, New York, USA