Gregory Burns

Gregory Burns’ passion for art began as a boy growing up in Paris where he created comic strips and painted bottles of Beaujolais. During his first university art class he knew he had found his calling when confronted with the nude. He slipped into the fabric of Asia in 1984, concluding a cloistered existence painting the beauty of the California Dream. Setting sail for Taiwan he studied Chinese brush painting and calligraphy with local masters for two years.

With broken Mandarin and paintbrushes he began a summer backpacking trip overland through China, Tibet, Nepal, India and Pakistan, which stretched into a 16-month sojourn. While seeking out Buddhist and Hindu sacred sites, his artwork began referencing the different religious and architectural imagery of Asia.

While vacationing in Tahiti in 1990, he met the crew of the boat and TV program called “The Return of Marco Polo”. Invited to join the team, he left his girlfriend on the jetty in Tahiti and sailed the South Pacific and South China Sea for a year before disembarking in Hong Kong. Throughout the voyage he painted and helped produce 25 documentaries about the people and places the boat visited.

Since completing his Master in Painting at the end of the last century...

1998-1999 Master of Fine Art, Painting
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Melbourne, Australia
1984-1985 Graduate studies in Chinese painting/calligraphy and art history
Chung Da University; Taipei, Taiwan (San Jose State Int’l Program)
1978-1980 BA Communications Studies/Minor in Art
University of California, Santa Barbara; California, USA

2014 ‘The Today Museum’, Beijing, China
2013 ‘TedX Singapore’, SMU, Singapore
‘Made in Maldives’, One&Only Reethi Rah, Maldives
‘Sojourn’, American Kaleidoscope, St Regis, Singapore
‘FLY’, USA Trading Center, Shanghai, China
‘Across Cultures’, StudioBurns, Singapore
2012 ‘FLY’, River South Art Center, Shanghai, China
‘Painted Journeys’, The Gallery, Shangri-La Pudong, China
‘Made in Tokyo’, Shangri-La Tokyo, Japan
“Shanghai Journey”, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China
“Recent Works”, StudioBurns Gallery, Singapore
2011 “Made in Bali”, Alila Villas Soori, Bali, Indonesia
“Made in Maldives”, Shangri-La Resort, Villingili, Maldives
2010 “Made in Mutianyu”, The Schoolhouse, Beijing, China
2009 “Recovery”, RR Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
2008 “Olympic & Paralympic Heroes”, Creation Art Gallery, Beijing, China
“Moroccan Medley”, Angsana Riad Collection, Marrakech, Morocco
2007 “Connection Shanghai”, River South Art Center, Shanghai, China
“Painted Journey”, Jane Haslem Gallery, Wash. D.C. USA
2006 “China: Lijiang to Shangri-la”, Kooky Loft, Singapore
2005 “Unmapped Journey”, SCCB, Santa Cruz, Ca. USA
2004 “Sanctums”, Karen Weber Gallery, Hong Kong
2003 “Migration and Transition”, The Big ...