Diane Burko - Cristin Tierney

Diane Burko's "Bearing Witness," her exhibition at Cristin Tierney, examined the boundlessness of nature's sublimity, even in the midst of rerrifying ecological collapse. The artist's mixed-media paintings­grand, spectacular works that are both figurative and abstract—are an ingenious fusion of AbEx abandon and impressionistic delicacy. Take Summer Heat 1 & 2, 2020, which is seven feet high and more than thirteen feet wide. The right side, made up of four separate canvases, features a weather map-like rendering of Italy, doused in fiery oranges and reds—surely a statement on the crushing swelter that took over the country at the start of the titular season the year this piece was made. The cool blues surrounding the boot-shaped nation, alas, provide no relief. To the left of this scene were two more canvases, hung atop one another. In the lower portion, we experienced some kind of sylvan conflagration. We also saw a silhouette of a creature being burned alive near a denuded tree—an omen of mass extinction, perhaps.