JB BURKE

MYSTERY AT CANDY CANYON

mini feature

May 2nd - June 1st, 2025

Opening Reception: First Friday, May 2nd, 2025 ​

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[Film noir voice-over narration: Candy Canyon looks sweet, don’t it kid? Like a postcard from a diabetic fever dream. A little too sweet. Smells like cotton candy and betrayal. Things here get sticky fast. The cast of characters? Long expired. Names like “Sherbert Hargrove” and “Honey Clementine” are dressed in vintage sunglasses and jacquard drapes—it’s giving old-money southern elite. Suspicious. A little too sweet. See, in a place like this, a sugar-coated smile can hide a poison marshmallow on a TV-dinner tray any day. Step a little closer, kid. You’ll see. Wait…stop the sprinkles...are these drawings?!?]

 

Jessica “JB” Burke (b.1976) makes fluorescent, photorealistic drawings in colored pencil. Working in layers and employing a variety of techniques, Burke achieves such astonishing, lifelike accuracy; it’s hard to believe these are works on paper done by hand. There’s an obsessiveness to the precision, and more often than not, when an artist finds themselves working for long stretches of time on the abstract details of a representational composition, a narrative unfolds in their minds. For JB Burke, Candy Canyon became the perfect place for a classic ‘whodunit’ murder mystery—under the influence of a sugar high. 

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“For this body of work, I want people to engage and interact with the concept of the exhibition around a fictional town made of sugar and candy inhabited by skeletons. The viewer is invited into town because there has been a murder. They can determine the role of victim, amateur sleuth, murderer, nosy neighbor. Maybe they will wonder why the victim was killed, which house belonged to them, which to the killer, and which form of poison they used to kill…

 

“Many murder mysteries revolve around a small, close circle of suspects—friends, family, colleagues—and how those relationships unravel under investigation. This exploration of social dynamics—beytrayal, loyalty, guilt—adds another layer of complexity. At the end of most murder mysteries, there’s a sense of order being restored when the killer is brought to justice. In a world where things sometimes feel out of our control, these stories give us a sense that there’s still a chance for moral balance, even if it’s only in the fictional world.” - JB Burke

 

MYSTERY AT CANDY CANYON is JB Burke’s solo debut with Arch Enemy Arts. The series includes eight framed drawings in colored pencil on paper and one digital original (1 of 1 printed on canvas and wrapped to panel). Burke obtained an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and she is a Fine Arts professor at UNC College of Arts and Architecture in Charlotte. Held in several permanent collections across the U.S. and in Japan, France, and Mexico, her work has been published in Manifest’s International Drawing Annual (INDA), Studio Visit Magazine, North Light Book’s Strokes of Genius 9, and the 2nd Edition of Art for Everyone by University Press. JB Burke began showing with Arch Enemy Arts last year after submitting to our 2024 Spotlight Showcase. Her playful yet complex drawings were an immediate hit, thus we are honored to introduce her first solo series to our collectors.

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MYSTERY AT CANDY CANYON will be on view from May 2nd - June 1st, 2025
Sold works will begin to ship the week starting June 8th, unless other rush shipping arrangements have been made. 

Items marked with a red dot have already been sold.

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