Description
‘Panem et Circenses’ by JB Burke
Artist: JB Burke
Title: ‘Panem et Circenses’
Medium: Coloured pencil on Canford Imperial Paper (Bubblegum)
Dimensions: 16″ x 20″
Framing: Framed (frame size: 24″ x 18″)
Year of Creation: 2023
Artwork Will Ship From: USA
About the Artwork:
This drawing explores the language of excess and consequence. The roles of the predator and the prey have been reversed within this cage of complex carbohydrates that represent our addiction to ultra processed foods. It is a surreal tableau that uses a saccharine sweet palette to underscore the implied threat of industrial processing methods. All of this candy-coated architecture suggests comfort and nostalgia, but emphasizes our cultural obsession with the artificial and detrimental. – JB Burke
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
Jessica ‘JB’ Burke is an award-winning artist and Associate Professor of Art at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. As a contemporary realist working in both traditional and digital drawing media, she focuses on the intersection of identity, consumption, and mass media. She has established a strong reputation as an arts practitioner whose work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions at Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee, Florida; the Toshima Gallery in Tokyo, Japan; Aqua Miami during Art Basel 2025 and the LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. She has been an artist-in residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Cork, Ireland; Key West, Florida; Cove Park, Scotland and in Budapest, Hungary . Her drawings have been published in Manifest’s International Drawing Annual (INDA) 13; Studio Visit Magazine; Strokes of Genius: The Best of Drawing volumes 9 and 13; and Art for Everyone, a textbook from University Press.