Ron Burkhardt’s art has been displayed around the world. Now, visitors to the Delray Beach Public Library have the chance to see it up close and personal.
The founder of three contemporary American art genres — Notism, Earth Art Canvasses and LetterScapes, Burkhardt entered the art scene in 2001 after spending years in the advertising industry.
“I owned an ad agency in New York and it was frantic,” says Burkhardt. “Around the millennium a gallery owner saw some of the scribbles I had turned into art and said I should do a show.”
Those hieroglyphic scribbles were notes he took in business meetings and to-do lists. He turned these pieces of personal history into vibrant and colorful works of art he calls “Notism.”
“I did my first show right before 9-11. It was such a major life event, I decided to do it full time,” he says.
In 2009, Burkhardt stumbled into earth art — giant canvases comprising various paints and bits of soil from wherever he may be. There is a canvas measuring 132 inches by 54 inches that he made out of rocky desert soil from Arizona at the Delray Library show.
“I use bold, graphic colors and people respond to that,” he says.
He has 30 pieces at the Delray Beach library that will show until Dec. 18. They range in price from $1,500 to $55,000, though most are in the $15,000 to $20,000 range. Twenty percent of the proceeds is being donated to the library.
Visit delraylibrary.org or ronburkhardt.com.