{"id":596952,"date":"2026-08-26T21:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/596952\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T21:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:46:16","slug":"lush-foliage-permeates-xanthe-burdetts-delicate-portraiture-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/596952\/","title":{"rendered":"Lush Foliage Permeates Xanthe Burdett’s Delicate Portraiture \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Xanthe Burdett<\/a>, the boundary between humans and nature is thin, malleable, and always in flux. The Devon-born, London-based artist works largely in a palette of greens, layering leaves and vines atop faint figurative silhouettes. Invoking mythology and ancient cosmologies, her paintings suggest that people and plants are not only interconnected but also intrinsically one.<\/p>\n

Beginning with a sketch, Burdett employs the Renaissance-era cartoon method<\/a> of transferring her drawings to canvas, which involves layering a substance like charcoal between the preparatory composition and the substrate and tracing the initial linework. After, the artist adds various greenery until she\u2019s reached a lush density.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cThey came upon a clearing\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 70 x 100 centimeters<\/p>\n

Burdett considers superimposition to be a way of \u201creimagining the body as a site of ecological and mythic transformation,\u201d she says. \u201cIn an age defined by environmental catastrophe\u2014wildfires, biodiversity loss, and climate anxiety\u2014the work functions both as a refuge and as a space for imagining alternative ways of being with the more-than-human world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presented as \u201chost and terrain,\u201d Burdett\u2019s figures encompass a sense of growth and regeneration as \u201cflesh gives way to nettles, brambles, and tender green shoots,\u201d she adds. Many also invoke mythic deities, including Venus, the Roman god of beauty and fertility, and Janus, the god of transitions and beginnings.<\/p>\n

This fall, the artist will be in residence at Soho Revue<\/a> working on a collection exploring the Greek tale of Daphne, who morphed into a laurel tree, as a way to conceptualize transformation amid climate catastrophe.. Keep up with that new series on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cJanus\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 30 x 25 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cVegetable Venus\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 80 x 160 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cViriditas\u201d (2024),oil on Khadi handmade rag paper, 30 x 21.5 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a><\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cDeath of a Muse\u201d (2025), oil on linen, 24 x 60 inches<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>\u201cThe conversation\u201d (2026), oil and metal leaf on board, 17.8 x 12.7 centimeters<\/p>\n

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