Arlene Burke-Morgan
"Pressing In", 1996
Water-based crayon on paper
Unframed: 44 x 30 inches (111.8 x 76.2 cm)
Framed: 48 x 33 ⅝ x 2 ½ inches (121.9 x 85.4 x 6.4 cm)
Courtesy of the estate of Arlene Burke-Morgan

Selected by Julia Trotta

Arlene Burke-Morgan (1950-2017, Minneapolis, MN) was an American visual artist born in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned her BFA at Moore College of Art (Philadelphia, PA) in 1972, and her MFA at East Carolina University (Greenville, NC) in 1989.  Over the course of forty years, Burke-Morgan created visually rich and enthralling work, including ceramics, textiles, drawing, and painting. Her works were included in exhibitions amongst an esteemed cohort of friends and peers, including Lowery Stokes Sims, Winnie Owens-Hart, Mel Edwards, Fred Wilson, Jack Whitten, Deborah Willis, Beverly Buchanan, Howardena Pindell, Barkley Hendrick, Terry Adkins, and Jacob Lawrence. 

Known for her generosity and artistic rigor, the prolific artist left a catalog of works guided by her spiritual faith and informed by African Diasporic cultural traditions. Burke-Morgan's work is held in private and public collections, including Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; and Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum, Cullowhee, NC. Posthumous exhibitions include “A Tender Spirit, A Vital Form” (2022); a two-person survey with her husband, painter Clarence Morgan, at Katherine E. Nash Gallery at University of Minnesota; and “Stained with Glass: Vitreograph Prints from the Studio of Harvey K. Littleton” (2022) at Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC. In autumn of 2025, her ceramic work will be featured in the group exhibition “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO.