Fatemeh Burnes was born in Tehran. She first came to the United States in 1973, spent a five-year period between three continents, and settled in Southern California in 1977. Classically trained in Persian art and verse (she was mentored by her uncle, poet Salek Esfahani, and was featured on several radio programs devoted to poetry), Burnes also studied biology, modern Persian poetry, and western artistic practice – including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, art history, and exhibition design – in Iran, Europe, and ultimately in California, where she received her BFA and MFA in art and art history.
Burnes has taught fine arts, design, and art history at California State University Fullerton, the Art Institute of Southern California (now the Laguna College of Art and Design), Saddleback College, Fullerton College, and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise (FIDM). She also led special programs in public art, which resulted in the creation of murals dealing with environmental themes, and has taught plein-air painting internationally.
Since 1992 Burnes has served as gallery director and curator as well as full-time professor of drawing and design at Mt. San Antonio College, focusing in particular on art education and curriculum development in exhibition organization and design. At the gallery she has curated over 100 exhibitions, authored numerous publications, conducted art-education documentaries, and worked with an international array of artists and art professionals. She has exhibited her own work extensively since the 1980s.
The last several years have been the most eventful of Burnes’ career. Since re-emerging in 2009 with new bodies of work in painting and photography, Burnes has earned the attention of top critics and curators in Southern California and has gained national and international recognition. In January 2012 Zero+ Publishing released drift, a book of Burnes’ photographs, edited by critic and writer Peter Frank; and in March 2013 she published a 220-page full-color catalogue, Imprints of Nature and Human Nature, to accompany a solo exhibition at Mt. San Antonio College celebrating her two decades with the school. She has also exhibited at the Municipal Arts Gallery in Los Angeles, the Sturt Haaga Gallery of the Descanso Gardens in La Cañada-Flintridge, and at Laguna Beach’s George Gallery, which focuses on museum-caliber contemporary women artists. Her exhibitions have been reviewed in publications such as art ltd, ArtScene, and the Huffington Post.
In 2014 Burnes is scheduled for exhibitions both nationally and internationally. She will be featured in “Trans-Angeles,” a traveling exhibition curated by Peter Frank for the Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus in Soest, Germany. The show is designed to highlight the distinctive paradigm within which Los Angeles artists think and work, drawing on both personal experience and Southern California’s variety of cultural and natural phenomena and fostering a willingness to experiment with diverse modes and media.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2019 "Ten Year Survey," Riverside Community College, curated by Leslie Brown
2018 Solo Exhibition - High Noon Gallery, New York, NY
2013 “Imprints of Nature and Human Nature,” Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
2013 “Interstices,” The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2012 “Observing Nature,” curated by Scott Canty, Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, CA
1994 "Canyon Series II," Women's Opportunity Center, University of California, Irvine, CA
1993 "Canyon Series," Maturango Museum, Ridgecrest, CA
1986 M.F.A. Exhibition, California State University, Fullerton
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2018 Lazy Susan V/Human Nature LAVA Projects: 2417 W. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, CA
June 3-July 8 2018 Opening Reception: Sunday, June 3, 4:00-7:00 pm
Hilary Baker, Kireilyn Barber, Lynne Berman, Anita Bunn, Fatemeh Burnes, Deena Capparelli, Masood Kamandy, Yolanda Macias McKay, Anne Marie Karlsen, Laure H. Parker, Astrid Preston, Dennis Reed, Olga Seem, Mahara T. Sinclaire, Howard Deam Spector, Caryl St. Ama, Eve Wood, Lawrence T. Yun
Can’t See the Forest for the Trees Manhatten Beach Cultural Art Center
June 29, 2018, through August 5, 2018
Fatemeh Burnes Robert Ketchum, Lowell Nickel, Jaclyn Lopez Garcia
"The Painted Desert, Part II", high noon gallery, New York
November 16 - December 24,
Fatemeh Burnes, Cara Cole, Peter Fox, Mary Jones, Jill Levine, Daina Mattis, James Miller, Bobbie Oliver, Hanna Von Goeler, Lindsay Walt
2017 "Artists on the Bridge", Photo LA, Los Angeles, CA
Fatemeh Burnes, Clayton Campbell, Kate Johnson, and Kubo
"Confabulating", Mt. San Antonio Gardens, Claremont, CA
Fatemeh Burnes, John David O'Brien
"Transangeles", Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Aschaffenburg, Germany
Fatemeh Burnes, Cosimo Cavallaro, Gisela Colon, Gronk, KuBO, Maya Sofia Mercer, Kirk Pedersen, Mei Xian Qiu, Katsuhisa Sakai, John White, Jae Hwa, Zadik Zadikian
"Synergy", Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
Keith Batcheller, Dennis Brown, Ron Brown, Fatemeh Burnes, Dawn Huxley Butler, Thomas Butler, Hiroshi Clark, Cherie Benner Davis,
Craig Deines John Donahue, Charles Edwards, Louis Felix, Kristin Frost, Dirk Hagner, Walter Impert, Gail Jacobs, Joan Kahn, Nikki Lewis Melissa Macias, Kirk Pedersen, Jason Perez, Raymond Persinger, Serena Potter, Katie Queen, Jason Ramos, Josh Reed, Nathan Rohlander, Susie Rubenstein, Joshua Schaedel, Steve Schenck, Gregory Smith, Kathryn Stovall Dennis, Thomas Stubbs, Christopher Synicky, Sunil Thankamushy, Dan Van Clapp, and Shari Wasson
2016 Palm Springs Fine Art Fair: Post-War and Contemporary Art, Lam Gallery, Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, CA
Kent Twitchel, Brad Howe, Fatemeh Burnes, Miriam Wosk
"Art 4 Trevor" Benefiting the Trevor Project, Lam Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Aline Mare, Brian Hollister, Chad Awalt, Chien Yang Wang, Diane Holland, Fatemeh Burnes, Gary Brewer, Harley Langberg, Jack Davidson,
Jim Zver, Kathleen Whitney, Lisa Schulte, Luke Austin Martin Gantman, Marvin Minto Fang, Miriam Wosk, Nancy Baker Kahill, Rene Porter,
Robert Cavolina, Tang Wei Hsu, Tsu Han Su, Vanessa Chow, Hudson And Delila
"Collaboration", Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA
"Transangeles" Museum Wilhelm, Morgner, Aschaffenburg, Germany
Fatemeh Burnes, Cosimo Cavallaro, Kubo, Katsuhisa Sakai
"Transangeles: Crossover Experimentation", Chabot Museum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Fatemeh Burnes, Cosimo Cavallaro, Gisela Colon, Gronk, Kubo, Maya Mercer, Kirk Pedersen, Mei Xian Qiu, Katsuhisa Sakai, John White, Jae Wae Yoo, Zadik Zadikian
Curator: Peter Frank
"The Language of Perpetual Conditions", California State University Los Angeles Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Rebecca Bird, Fatemeh Burnes, Nancy Baker Cahill, Jamison Carter, Ching Ching Cheng, Sarah Coleman, Jill Daves, Gioj De Marco, Margaret Griffith, Jennifer Gunlock, Daniel Healey, Brandon Hudson, George Legrady, Christine Nguyen, Vincent Tomczyk, Stephanie Washburn, Valerie Wilcox, Joan Wulf
"Abstract Never Is", ViCA & Muzuemm, Venice, CA
2015 "How Many Miles to Babylon: Recent Paintings from Los Angeles and New York," C24 Gallery, New York, NY
"Water Works," curated by Juri Koll, Museum of Art and History Cedar, Lancaster, CA
"Visualizations in Art and Science," South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro, CA
"Water Works," curated by Juri Koll, The Loft at Liz's, Los Angeles, CA
"Curate This," The Gabba Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
"Flock" Gayna Walska Lotusland, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 "Transforming Feminism," South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro, CA
"Trans-Angeles," curated by Peter Frank, Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus museum, Soest, Germany
"Water Works," curated by Juri Koll, Porch Gallery, Ojai, CA
"Rewilding," Manhattan Beach Creative Arts Center, Manhattan Beach, CA
2013 "Urban Asia and the Evolution of ZERO+ Publishing," Offramp Gallery, Pasadena, CA
"Dangerous Beauties," curated by John O'Brien," Sturt Haaga Gallery, La Canada Flintridge, CA
"Guides," dA Center for the Arts, Pomona, CA
"Flux/Quirk," The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2012 "Un-Natural," curated by Scott Canty, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
"Didactic," Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
2011 "Transition: In Memory of Richard Raynard," Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
"Text and Texture," curated by Peter Frank, Fresh Paint Art Advisors, Culver City, CA
2008 "FRAG-MENTS," Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
2006 "Inversion," Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA,
2001 "Sequence: Part Two," Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA,
1998 "Synchronicity," Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA,
1995 "Miniature," Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA,
"Separate Reality," Mount San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
1994 "The Committed Image," Mt. San Jacinto College, San Jacinto, CA,
1993 "Aesthetic Processes," Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA,
"Dreams and Tokens," Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA,
1991 Art Store Gallery, Newport Beach, CA,
Edinger Gallery, Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA
Saddleback College Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA,
"Landscape Plus," Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA,
1990 "Man and the Environment," Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo, CA,
"Spirit of the Canyons: A Celebration," Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA,
1989 "Save-a-Tree Exhibition," CSUF Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary, Fullerton, CA,
Saddleback College Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA,
"Point of View," Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, CA,
1988 Edinger Gallery, Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA,
"On the Edge," California State University, Fullerton, CA,
1986 "Interchange," Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA,
1982 Exit Gallery (two-person exhibition), California State University, Fullerton, CA,
1979 Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA,
1978 Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA - First Place Award for Photo Realism,
1977 Los Feliz Orthadox Church, Glendale, CA,