A.K. Burns
1975–

A.K. Burns (née Aisha Khalilah Burnes; 1975, Capitola, California) is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and educator working with video, installation, sculpture, drawing-collage, writing and collaboration. Working through a trans-feminist lens Burns explores the nexus of language and materiality. Her artwork troubles hegemonic systems and their impact on gender, labor, ecology and sexuality. A.K. Burns is an Associate Professor and MFA Co-Director at Hunter College, Department of Art & Art History. Burns is a 2023 Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Art. Burns has works in several public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. Burns is currently represented by Michel Rein Gallery, Paris/Brussels, and Video Data Bank, Chicago. Burns is gender non-conforming and has no preferred pronoun.