About
Doug Irani Burton's practice is an assemblage of enquiries which questions his relationship with place, matter and histories. Burton's creative origins stem from his knowledge of ceramics studio practice passed down to him from his father, the potter Vivian Burton which connects with his ambitions for making across art and design. In addition, Burton's cultural heritage from Persia, Corsica and England informs his creative approach.
Burton makes work from his studio in North Devon, is an alumni of the Royal Academy Schools, London, was a technical assistant to Sir Anthony Caro. Burton was the Head of the Creative Arts Department at the Open College of the Arts part of the Open University completing over a decade of academic projects including the BA (Hons) Drawing and Creative Arts degrees as well numerous other courses. Burton is the current External Examiner at Cardiff and Vale College of Art and Design. Burton is currently developing Littleton Arts a residency, retreat and creative projects on the North Devon coast, he is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
'My practice explores the intersection between matter, history and my process of making. I seek to investigate place and time as a continuous flow of events, capturing the essence of these moments as an actuality interconnected and unfolding over time. I'm interested in how I can make an object or drawing that responds to the qualities of history and site as an artefact, a pause in the flow that I hope to inhabit through making.'
The 'morphology' of structures through time are central to Burton’s current practice. The art writer David Lillington describes his working process as "... problem solving, ways of thinking, 'the idea of the interconnectedness of all things - the architecture of thought as much as the architecture of matter and space – are at the heart of his work. They constitute its real subject."
Burton's work responds to thinking around a nonlinear history, finding the actuality, the moments between events, which extends his interest in how structures evolve, divide and stratify, opening up a continuum that places us within the time/matter stream.
Persian_fire, 2023, Stoneware, Slip, Iron Ore
Phase-transition, mixed-media monoprint, 37x37cm, 2018
CV
Born UK 1975
Lives and Works in North Devon
Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors (MRSS)
Education/Practice:
2018- Awarded membership to the Royal Society of Sculptors (MRSS)
1999-2002 Postgraduate Studies, Royal Academy Schools, London
1995-1998 BA Honours First Class Degree, Winchester School of Art
1993-1995 Art Foundation, Falmouth School of Art, Cornwall
Selected group and solo exhibitions:
August 2023 Wander_Land, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens and Gallery, Tremenheere, Cornwall
Nov 2022 group presentation, Centre for Material Thinking, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth
June 2022 Summer Show selected and curated by Isabel de Vasconcellos, Royal Society of Sculptors, Cromwell Place, London
July 2019 Parallel Lines: Drawing and Sculpture alongside The Ingram Collection, selected and curated by Caroline Worthington, The Lightbox, Woking
Nov 2018 Osmosis, Group show, The Island, Bristol
Nov 2017 The Masters Monoprint Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
Nov 2017 SW Group Exhibition, Old Brick Workshop, Wellington
May 2014 Behold, Group Show, The Ivy, London
Dec 2013 Alter//Shift//Control, Bermondsey Project Space, London, Group Show
Sept 2013 Futurefest, Shoreditch Town Hall, London, Nesta future reality symposium
Mar 2013 Drawn, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, Selected Drawing Group Show
Jan 2013 Nesta, Selected Digital Image Installations, Nesta (National Endowments for Science Technology and the Arts) Head Offices, London
July 2012 Retrospex, Selected Group Show, Elevator Gallery, Hackney Wick, London
June 2012 Dangerous Curves Ahead, Selected Group Show, Bermondsey Project Space, London
Nov 2011 Animation Open, Selected Group Show, Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury
June 2011 Doug Burton Sculptures, In association with VJB Arts and Hammerson PLC, 60 Threadneedle Street, London
June 2011 Connection Point London, Group Show curated by Edward Lucie Smith and Max Presneill, at SE1 Project Space London
Oct 2010 Visions, Selected Group Show, The Nunnery Gallery, London
July 2010 Continuum, Solo Show, Schwartz Gallery, London
June 2010 National Sculpture Prize 2010, Broomhill Sculpture Park, Devon, UK
Jan 2010 Print Now, London Art Fair, Islington Design Centre, London
Dec 2009 Trident Way 2: The Southall Project, Group Show organised by Departure Gallery in a 30'000sqft Warehouse, London
Oct 2009 Galileo, Galileo, Group show, Islington Arts Factory, London (Arts Council England, Royal Astronomical Society funded)
Apr 2009 The Shoe Horn, Group show, Crimes Town Gallery, London
Mar 2009 Hines Urban Gallery Showcase, Hines One Grafton Street Building Wrap, London
Dec 2008 Wonder Island, Group show, Schwartz Gallery, London
June 2008 Burton + Palmer, George Polke 2, London
Jan 2008 Morphology, Doug Burton and Nicky Hirst, Royal Academy Schools Gallery, London
May 2006 International Competition for Young Sculptors, Group show, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan, Italy
Oct 2004 Young Artists @ CERN, Group show, CERN, Geneva, Switz
Sept 2004 Institute of Education, Group show, London
April 2004 Frontier Land, Sculpture Space, Café Gallery Projects, London
Feb 2004 Intersection, Group show, House Gallery, Camberwell, London
July 2003 One Eye Open, Solo show, RBS Gallery, London
May 2003 Royal West of England Academy Open Sculpture, Bristol
Mar 2003 Pride of The Valley Sculpture Park, x2 Sited Sculptures
Jan 2003 14x14 Group show, Century Gallery, London
Sept 2001 Melancholia, Solo show, Warwick St Mary's Church, Crypt
Feb 2000 Group show, Jelly Leg'd Chicken Arts Centre, Reading
Dec 1999 Nooks and Crannies, Solo show, Wenlock Basin exhibition space (Supported by Edward Cullinan Architects, London)
Academic:
2024 - Littleton Arts, projects, residencies and retreats
2022 - Research commission, Rapparee, Centre for Material Thinking and Aberystwyth University https://materialthinking.net/commissions/rapparee/
2022 - Programme Review BA (Hons) Creative Arts with The Open University
2022 - External Examiner FdA Contemporary Artist Designer, FdA Product Design, FdA Graphic Communication, Cardiff and Vale College of Art and Design (CAVC)
2021 - External Reviewer, Swansea School of Art and Design
2020 - Validation BA (Hons) Creative Arts (OCA) by University for the Creative Arts
2020 - Co-author Short Course ‘Investigating Place with Psychogeography’ (OCA/UCA)
2018 - Editor, HE-5 (year 2) Drawing 2 ‘A Personal Approach to Drawing’, (OCA/UCA)
2018 - Editor, Foundation ‘Drawing From the Past’, (OCA/UCA)
2018 - Paper published, Distance Learning in Creative Arts Education: understanding the benefits of time and distance in the delivery of HE at the Open College of the Arts, JUICE (Journal of Useful Investigation in Creative Education), online At: https://juice-journal.com/2018/10/24/distance-learning-in-creative-arts-education-understanding-the-benefits-of-time-and-distance-in-the-delivery-of-he-at-the-open-college-of-the-arts/
2018 - Co-author and editor Foundation 'Materials and Making: Approaches to Sculpture' (OCA/UCA)
2017 - Research presentation 'Slow Learning in Arts Education' at iJade conference, NCAD, Dublin
2016 - Interview in: Allen, J. & Rowles, R. (eds.), 2016, Professional Practice: 20 Questions. London: Q-Arts. pp.301-306.
2016 - Validation BA (Hons) Drawing (OCA) by University for the Creative Arts
2015 - Validation BA (Hons) Creative Arts (OCA) by University for the Creative Arts
2015 - Author 'Sustaining Your Practice', 'Body of Work' HE Level 3 BA (Hons) Creative Arts OCA/UCA
2014 - Programme Leader BA (Hons) Creative Arts, Open College of the Arts / University for the Creative Arts
2014 - Programme Leader BA (Hons) Drawing, Open College of the Arts / University for the Creative Arts
2012 - Tutor in Sculpture, Drawing, Printmaking, Critical Theory, Open College of the Arts / University for the Creative Arts
2010-2011 Assistant Lecturer, Sculpture Foundation in Art and Design, Byam Shaw School of Art (part of Central Saint Martins)
1998-2000 Studio technical assistant to Sir Anthony Caro
Awards:
2003 -Royal Society of British Sculptors Bronze Foundry Residency at the Phoenix Bronze Foundry, Basingstoke, Hampshire
2002 -Patricia Turner Award
-Henry Moore Bursary
2001 -Vincent Harris Award
-Henry Moore Bursary
2000 -Robin Hellar Moss Bursary
-Henry Moore Bursary
Research and Travel:
2009 "Galileo Galileo", Royal Astronomical Society Funded research, as part of International Year of Astronomy 2009
2004 Young Artist@CERN Research trip to CERN (European Centre for Research into Nuclear Physics), Geneva, Switzerland.
2002 Russia-China, research trip along Trans-Siberian railway
2001 India, research trip Bombay – Calcutta, March - May funded by Royal Academy Schools 'Premiums' award
Located: Littleton Studios, North Devon