Surr/realms: The Asylum Artwork

Xenia Burn is an abstract artist who creates minimalist works with subject narratives, exploring mixed media techniques, primarily using paper and alcohol inks. Before transitioning to fine art, she spent eight years in fashion photography, collaborating with international brands and magazines in Ukraine, US and China. Her fascination with paper began through watercolor experiments, where she observed how it absorbs and alters information—much like human memory—leading her to explore its physicality as a metaphor for identity. Her influences range from Basquiat, Dubuffet, Picabia, Malevich, and Miró to contemporary artists like Bradford, Mehretu, and Gallagher, who expand the boundaries of abstraction and materiality. Inspired by personality psychology, self-identity, and social dynamics, Xenia explores how a sense of self is constructed and reshaped under external forces. Her work visualizes the contradictions of human nature—structured yet chaotic, fragile yet enduring—translating the essence of identity into a tactile, abstract language.