Elijah Burgher

Elijah Burgher is a Berlin based artist who uses painting, drawing, photography and printmaking, to explore themes of desire, love, and subcultural dynamics through a personal code of symbols inspired by mythology and history. Maenad is a dynamic work of art - a drawing, photograph, collage, and watercolor painting - that is part of a large series of works that celebrates and challenges Greek and Roman mythology and political culture. The work centers a black and white photograph of a sculpture of a Maenad - a female follower of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus - pasted onto the center of the paper, surrounded by the fruits of a painterly life, swatches of color fanning out around the photograph and completing the work. Through the work, Burgher reflects on the human tendency to create and reinterpret stories, as the Maenad—perhaps in a state of divine intoxication—holds a dagger and a deer, raising questions about sacrifice and divine fury.