Pete Burkeet

Burkeet's life has been indelibly shaped by an intrinsic need to create, a journey that began in the 1990s as an undergraduate majoring in painting at The University of Akron. This period marked the start of an intense production phase, during which they developed hundreds of paintings, videos, and digital art pieces, eventually earning an MFA in painting and digital art. Their creative drive was influenced by experiences rooted in the darker aspects of the American landscape, which they describe as its "toxic underbelly.

From a young age in Ohio, the artist was exposed to environmental and societal neglect—bathing and drinking from a well contaminated by a nearby superfund site and spending considerable time in consumerist temples like malls. These early experiences cultivated a fascination with humanity's penchant for overlooking the detrimental or eerie aspects of its environment. This theme of neglect and oversight permeates their work. During their time as a student, they worked late nights in a studio adjacent to a room marked by tragedy—a figure drawing room where a student had tragically ended his life five years earlier. The haunting memory of encountering what they believed to be the ghost of this student at 3 a.m. outside their studio further deepened their engagement with themes of terror, uncertainty, and the unknown.

Today, the artist resides near several abandoned malls, including one that harbored grim events in 2011, used by Craigslist killers as a site for murder and concealment. Living amidst these decaying symbols of consumerism and scenes of notorious crimes, the artist continues to explore and express the visceral terror of uncertainty that has characterized their life and work.