His powerful lines and defined colors stand out in works of an original format, full of imagery and energy. Bürkey, who lives and works in both Chile and New York, has now also set up shop here in San Miguel de Allende. As the son of a prominent Chilean art dealer/filmmaker/news correspondent mother and a US truck/taxi driver father, Bürkey has journeyed to a point where his paintings tell their own unique story.

His art schooling began at the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts, but he has also studied automotive mechanics and worked at nuclear power plants in both the U.S. and Spain. In a way, he is a walking contradiction. His work is also heavily influenced by the inheritance and influences of both ends of America, where he has researched the ancestral and cultural roots of the continent.

The myths and tales of the South Pacific, including that of Lemuria, are also constant inspirations which fuel Tomas’s imagination, his powerful lines, and his energy. Through the loose applications of a very tight color palette, his evocative movement and brush- strokes provide a tone and content reminiscent of Dante’s poetry. Corporal gestures and contortion push the limits of the human figure and imagination while evoking pathos for the searching of the artist in his ever-changing conscience.