Jeremy Burleson

Jeremy Burleson (b. 1981) is a Bay Area Artist who joined NIAD Art Center in 2003. Working primarily with masking tape and paper, he creates lyrical lampshade sculptures and ink drawings of stacked animals, balloons, food, and figures. 

Over many years, Burleson has developed his own exacting construction methods: his sculptures are handcrafted from tightly rolled paper tubes that intersect to form skeletal, open cages. The tubes are coated with bright pops of colorful ink and bound together by several types of tape. Many of these objects represent lamps and can function as such: they are designed to hang from the ceiling and contain lightbulbs, which illuminate the sculptures from within and intensify the dramatic web of shadows they cast around the space. 

Other paper sculptures are modeled after medical devices, hypodermic needles, stethoscopes, and handcuffs. Burleson effectively subverts and pokes fun at the original context of these objects by rendering each in the most lightweight, malleable material. 

Burleson has exhibited at the Oakland Museum of California, the Museum of Northern California Art, Bedford Gallery, Narrative Gallery, BAMP/FA, Sonoma State University, Ruth’s Table, and Chico Art Center. His work is in the permanent collections of the OMCA, Clif Bar and Company, BAMP/FA, and the MAD Musée in Belgium.