Contact
douglasburnsj@gmail.com
Statement
I use everyday materials to create paintings and sculptures rooted in daily life. Whether collaborating with my children at home, making collages on the road with my band, or using discarded items from my day job, I am dedicated to making art from my surroundings. Shaped by an itinerant childhood, religious trauma, and a long meditation on the phrase Et in Arcadia Ego (“Even in Arcadia, there is death”), my work explores loss, memory, and legacy. Through humble materials and collaborative gestures, I aim to honor the messiness of life—its beauty, sorrow, and impermanence, all tangled together.
Bio
Douglas Burns is a multidisciplinary artist and musician born in New Zealand and raised in Louisiana and Oregon. His work is informed by a childhood spent largely in the backseat of his family’s station wagon, sketching scenes outside of the window. Now with children of his own, he continues to mine this experience, using daily ephemera as source material for collages, assemblages, and videos.
He has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions in New York and Munich, as well as a museum exhibition at the Washington Pavilion in South Dakota. He holds an MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA in Art Practice from Portland State University. He is also the founder and director of Souvenir, an experimental art space in Northeast Portland.
CV
Born 1981 in Christchurch, New Zealand
Education
2013 Rhode Island School of Design: MFA Painting
2011 School of the Art Institute of Chicago: BFA Painting/Drawing
2004 Portland State University: BA Art Practices emphasis: Printmaking
Other Schools Attended
2004 Khon Kaen University, Social Sciences; Thai Language (Thailand)
2001 University of Tübingen, German Language and Culture (Germany)
Solo Exhibitions
2026 Albina Press, Knock Knock (Porttland, Oregon)
2025 Studio 516, Magic Number (Portland, Oregon)
2023 Well Well Projects, WaterSky (Two Person Exhibition) (Portland, Oregon)
2022 Washington Pavilion, Get Back to Work Doyg (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
2022 One River School, (Lake Oswego, Oregon)
2017 Coffey Contemporary Arts, Get to Work Doyg (Luverne, Minnesota)
2015 This Friday or Next Friday, You Need to Relax (New York, New York)
2014 Die Färberei, The Fragility of Rock-n-Roll (Munich, Germany)
2004 White Gallery, Witness This Evangelist (Portland, Oregon)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Soliloquy Fine Arts, Ekphraestival (Portland, Oregon)
2023 p:ear Gallery, Efflorescene (Portland, Oregon)
2022 Oranj Studios, Art Bijou (Portland, Oregon)
2019 Lakewood Center for the Arts, An Artistic Heritage (Lake Oswego, Oregon)
2018 Wowsville, Nothing Nice to Say 3 (Berlin, Germany)
2016 Lawndale Art Center, Traded (Houston, Texas)
2015 Videology Cinema, SUN Screening, Volume 2 (Brooklyn, New York)
2014 The Dean Hotel, Video Program, Season 1 (Providence, Rhode Island)
2013 Bernarducci Meisel Gallery, Annual Benefit (New York, New York)
2013 Projket 722, Well… (Brooklyn, New York)
2013 Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, Transmediation (New York, New York)
2013 Artspace Media Lounge College Art Association Annual Conference,
Transmediation (New York, New York)
2012 Gelman Gallery, Do You Think I Care (Providence, Rhode Island)
2012 Red Eye Gallery, Studio Lab (Providence, Rhode Island)
2012 Sol Koffler Gallery, Too Big To Fail (Providence, Rhode Island)
2012 Gelman Gallery, Personal Culture (Providence, Rhode Island)
2012 Wayfares Gallery, Two Become One (Brooklyn, New York)
2012 204 Westminister, Whiz Khids (Providence, Rhode Island)
2012 Gelman Gallery, From This Point Forward
(Providence, Rhode Island)
2010 Sullivan Galleries, SAIC BFA Exhibition (Chicago, Illinois)
2010 Gallery 5, Self-Titled (Richmond, Virginia)
2010 Roxaboxen, Northwest Party Dudes (Chicago, Illinois)
2010 1366 Space, Midnight Snacks (Chicago, Illinois)
2010 ConTemporary Art Space, Weird it Up (Chicago, Illinois)
2008 Onsix Gallery, Cataclysm (San Francisco, California)
2008 Work/Sound Gallery, Face Value (Portland, Oregon)
Professional Experience
2022 Owner/Director, Souvenir (Portland, Oregon)
2018 Collections and Facilities Specialist, Pittock Mansion
(Portland, Oregon)
2016 Preparator of Collections, Museum of Science and Industry
(Chicago, Illinois)
2014 Art Handler, The Icon Group (Chicago, Illinois)
2014 Visiting Critic, Installation / Sight & Sound,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professor: John Adimando
2014 Visiting Critic, Drawing II,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professor: John Adimando
2013 Instructor, Transforming Pop-Culture: Mix Media Painting,
Rhode Island School of Design
2013 Visiting Critic, Junior Painting,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professor: Duane Slick
2013 Visiting Critic, Critical Discourse: Open Media,
Rhode Island School of Design, Instructors: Daniel Peltz, Lorelei Pepi
2013 Visiting Artist/Critic, Drawing All to Itself,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professor: John Adimando
2013 Guest Lecturer, Installation/Sight & Sound,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professor: John Adimando
2012 Teaching Assistantship, Senior Print Workshop Critique,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professors: Randa Newland, John Adimando
2012 Teaching Assistantship, Junior Painting Studio,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professor: Mary Jones
2012 Teaching Assistantship, Painting from Observation,
Rhode Island School of Design,Professor: David Frazer
2011 Teaching Assistantship, Senior Honors Interdisciplinary Critique,
Rhode Island School of Design, Professor: Kevin Zucker
2010-2011 Gallery Assistant at Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery (Chicago, Illinois)
Published Artwork & Music
2025 The Observers, Collection (Germany)
2024 The Observers, So What's Left Now (Germany)
2023 Red Dons, East/West Collection (Germany)
2023 Red Dons, Generations (Germany)
2019 Endless Column, Endless Column, Erste Theke Tontraeger (Germany)
2017 Red Dons, Genocide/Letters, Man in Decline Records (USA)
2015 Red Dons, The Dead Hand of Tradition, Taken By Surprise Records
(Germany) / Deranged Records (Canada)
2015 Red Dons/TV Smith, A Vote for the Unknown, Deranged Records
(Canada) / Taken By Surprise Records (Germany)
2013 New American Paintings, Issue #105, MFA Annual
2013 Red Dons, Notes on the Underground, Grave Mistake Records (USA)
2012 Red Dons, Ausländer, Dirtnap Records (USA)
2011 Razorcake, Issue #61, Gorsky Press, Inc.
2011 Red Dons, A Forced Turning Point, Taken By Surprise Records (Germany)
2010 Andre Mesquita, Insurgências Poéticas, Annablume Publishing (Brazil)
2010 Priory, Cold Hands, Coat Tail Records (USA)
2010 Red Dons, Pariah, Deranged Records (Canada)
2010 Red Dons, Fake Meets Failure, Deranged Records (Canada)
Taken By Surprise Records (Germany) / Nada Nada Discos (Brazil)
2009 Red Dons, Escaping Amman, Nada Nada Discos (Brazil)
2009 Red Dons, Death to Idealism, Nada Nada Discos (Brazil)
2009 MONO, Issue #1 (Brazil)
2008 How Can Limo Kid Kill Your Dreams?, Issue #4 (Czech Republic)
2008 The Observers, Down on Today, Taken By Surprise Records (Germany)
2007 The Revisions, Revised Observations, Dirtnap / Wasted Sounds (Sweden)
2007 Red Dons, Death to Idealism, Deranged / Wasted Sounds (Sweden)
2007 The Observers, Walk Alone, La Vida en es Mus Records (England/Spain)
2006 The Observers, Public Safety, Maximum Rock’n’Roll Magazine (USA)
2005 The Observers, Walk Alone, Jonny Cat Records (USA)
2005 The Observers, Where I Stay, Deranged Records (Canada)
2004 The Observers, So What’s Left Now, Vinyl Warning Records (USA)
2004 The Observers, Lead Pill, Super Secret Records (USA)
Awards and Scholarships
2012 Graduate Fellowship and Honors, Rhode Island School of Design
2009 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Merit Scholarship
2004 Portland State University President’s List
2003 Portland State University Faculty Award Scholarship
2002 Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
Excerpt from: Letter's to Hajji - Get to Work Doyg
…After (my son’s) birth, I was lucky to get two or three hours a month in the studio… I had no time or resources to make art. My only time alone was spent driving to and from work. My solution was simple if not downright desperate. If I was going to make art, I had to do it while on the job. So, I stealthily moved my art studio into my office at the museum. Works in progress were hidden under legal pads, in manila folders and even behind a poster on the wall. Little sculptures lined the back of my desk drawers…
…Naturally, my art practice changed a bit. I could only use materials found in the workplace. Discarded mount making materials and cleaning supplies were recycled into small assemblages. Colored post-it notes, blue tape and daily ephemera were used to produce collages. The catch was that the work had to be small enough to sneak out of the museum. Every night security guards checked my bag. If they had noticed a sculpture or collage in there, the jig would have been up…
…I’ve continued working in this manner only my “studio” has expanded beyond the workplace. It’s become particularly fun at home because I’ve realized that if I want to make art here, I needed to include the kids. Both children draw and paint on my canvases whenever they feel like it. I also collage their drawings into my work along with the other ephemera that passes through my fingertips on a daily basis.