Teresa Burga

Developed over three decades between 1974–2004, Teresa Burga’s Insomnia Drawings depict abstract geometric patterns that are formulated according to a pre-determined set of rules. While working a day job at Peru’s General Customs Office designing computer software, Burga’s sleepless nights were spent drawing chance-based, automatic, looping forms and then meticulously filling in sections with grids of red, blue, or black ink—ensuring that two squares of the same color were never side-by-side. The resulting drawings represent the experimental nature of Burga’s drawing practice, which was inherently informed by informational systems rather than the unique gesture of the artist’s own hand. In her Insomnia series, Burga’s undulating forms at times cross paths, collide, and warp into geometric shapes and flat, overlapping planes filled with chessboard-like patterns that visually allude to Op Art designs of 1960s. In Insomnia Drawing (44) (2001), Burga utilized the backside of an official form—complete with fill-in-the-blank slots for personal information like height, weight, and phone number—appropriating the paper's original function and underscoring the automatic, coincidental nature of the drawing.