
Washington Post Staff writer Michael O'Sullivan reviews the exhibition "The Trawick Prize" and gushes over Burtner's work.
"But the show's scene-stealer, for me, was the work of Richmond-based "collections artist" Caryl Burtner, the centerpiece of whose work -- contained in five three-ring binders so humble a visitor might easily overlook them -- consists of photographs and photocopies recording the provenance of every aspirin, blouse, bed linen, glove and shampoo bottle the artist has used, going back almost 30 years. It's a tour-de-force example of performance art, stark in its everyday simplicity, yet with the power of a ton of feathers (not bricks).
Stunning in its labor-intensive--no, make that obsessive-compulsive--nuttiness, Burtner's art makes Rieck [the $10,000 prize winner] and others in the show look like pikers. Still, "The Caryl Burtner Archives," as they're called, are not without a sense of humor. They disturb and delight in equal measure."