Kimberly Burnett’s evocative oil paintings explore isolation, identity, and domestic space in her deeply personal
feature image: Kimberly Burnett, The Saffron Blues, oil 6’ x 8’. Courtesy of the Miller Art Museum.
Submitted
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin—The Miller Art Museum is excited to announce the opening of Sequestered Shadows, a compelling solo exhibition by Milwaukee-based emerging artist Kimberly Burnett, on view in downtown Sturgeon Bay August 2 – September 20, 2025. Featuring 35 intimate oil paintings, Sequestered Shadows invites viewers into a richly layered domestic world shaped by memory, duty, and quiet resilience. An artist reception is scheduled for Friday, August 1, 2025, from 5 – 7 pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Light refreshments will be served, and live music will be provided by Craig Schultz.
Drawing deeply from her childhood in rural North Carolina, Burnett constructs introspective scenes using her own likeness and those of her family members. The resulting compositions portray solitary figures caught in moments of stillness and subtle motion, exploring the tension between personal identity and domestic expectation. Her works transform everyday spaces into quiet stages of psychological complexity—places to hide, to watch, to endure.
“A person is shadows and smears and drips,” Burnett says. “Lines create form, colors create a relationship.”
With this philosophy at its heart, Sequestered Shadows is a study in emotional nuance. Burnett’s use of color becomes both a narrative tool and a mood map, giving life to the silent rituals of care, confinement, and self-expression. Each canvas hums with the weight of the unseen and the unspoken—doorways cracked open, windows offering unreachable light, and figures tethered to their surroundings by duty and longing.
“This exhibition is an extraordinary debut for a remarkable new voice in contemporary figurative painting,” says Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, executive director at the Miller Art Museum. “Burnett’s ability to evoke such depth of feeling through gesture, color, and form is both striking and deeply moving. We’re honored to bring her work to Door County audiences.”
Kimberly Burnett is a self-taught contemporary artist and illustrator residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Known for her style of “fractured realism,” Burnett works primarily in oil and charcoal. Her art draws on her formative years in rural North Carolina—surrounded by forests and homesteads—which cultivated a lifelong connection to the emotional textures of domestic space. A passionate storyteller, she has told people that she’s been an artist since the age of 2. Her work reveals strong classical influences from with realism being broken apart a little by the bits of color she sees around her. Her love of the Old Masters and the beauty of nature is revealed in her work. Her representational work often centers on figure and portrait, with recurring attention to hands as narrative focal points, revealing unspoken stories through gesture and posture. Burnett has exhibited across the Midwest, including solo and group shows at institutions like the Evanston Arts Center, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, and Trout Museum of Art.
Sequestered Shadows is presented with financial support from The Cordon Family Foundation, Door County Medical Center, the MMG Foundation, with additional grant support from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The museum is located in the Door County Library at 107 S. 4th Avenue, Sturgeon Bay. Hours are Monday 10 am – 7 pm and Tuesday through Saturday 10 am – 5 pm. Closed Sunday. Admission is free; an elevator is available to access galleries on the Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine. For more information about the exhibits or the museum, call (920) 746-0707 or visit http://www.millerartmuseum.org. Find the museum on Instagram at @MillerArtMuseum or Facebook @Miller Art Museum.
About the Miller Art Museum
Nestled in the heart of downtown Sturgeon Bay, the Miller Art Museum stands as a beacon of cultural enrichment and artistic exploration. Established in 1975, this dynamic institution has been a pillar of the Door County community, fostering creativity and appreciation for the visual arts. With a diverse collection of more than 1,500 works spanning historical to contemporary along with regularly changing exhibitions, visitors are treated to a compelling and diverse array of art. From powerful exhibitions highlighting regional and national talent to thought-provoking exhibits that explore the depths, joys, and complexities of our world, the museum offers something for art enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds. Beyond its exhibits, the Museum presents an array of educational programs, tours, performances, and events, engaging visitors in experiences that deepen their understanding and appreciation for art. With a commitment to excellence and accessibility, the Miller Art Museum continues to foster connections between artists and community through the creation of opportunities to explore, appreciate, and advance the visual arts. Visitors are invited to visit the Museum Store to browse a diverse selection of books, artisan crafts, paper goods, and unique gifts.
For more information contact:
Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, Executive Director
(920) 746-0707