David Burke is an Oakland based studio artist and public muralist who has firmly established himself in the Bay Area art scene over the last ten years.

His interests in science, ecology, water conservation and climate change are woven into the fabric of paintings that depict the intersection between the man made and natural worlds. The end results are large scale, fractured landscapes that portray instances where industrial and natural forces coexist harmoniously or collide in destructive ways. Pools of ink recede like oil-saturated waters at low tide. Trees emerge from a tangled field of structures, gears and wires. They possess a toxic beauty that celebrate man’s desire to build, innovate and create while acknowledging that our compulsion to consume and expand is eroding the ecological framework that we depend on in order to sustain our often wasteful habits.

Each one of his paintings is born out of a series of very small disasters that take place within the studio each day. He thinks about the apparent rise of natural disasters across the globe as the natural world pushes back against our seemingly endless thirst for its natural resources. Large pools of ink spill over the imagery, wiping out whatever had been made the day before. His work pays tribute to the resilience of the natural world and encourages viewers to reconsider our complicated and sometimes convoluted relationship to the environment.

Outside of the studio David Burke is one of the leading muralists in the US who creates public projects that are born specifically out of community collaboration. Over the last twenty years, he has developed refined approach to public art that provides youth and community members a voice and a platform to express their ideas and create powerful murals that address pressing social and environmental issues.

As current art director for the Oakland Super Heroes mural project since 2013, I lead local artists and students through the process of creating meaningful murals that reflect the visions and dreams of youth in Oakland. These large-scale murals are community efforts that require the input and participation of school administrators, community leaders, students and artists. The murals celebrate local diversity and address large social issues such as violence, climate change, homelessness, and local history.

In 2015, as part of the inaugural Zero1 American Arts Incubator in collaboration with the US State Department, I had the opportunity to lead a city-wide public art collaboration in Vientiane, Laos that raised awareness around pressing environmental issues impacting the country. I worked closely with local artists, professors, government leaders and community members to create five public art projects around the city. One of the exciting results was directing the first large scale, public mural painted ever by Laos artists in the entire country.