Stanley Burnside

Stanley "Stan" Burnside (born 1947) is a Bahamian cartoonist, painter, and costume designer. From 1979 to 2019, he penned the Sideburns editorial cartoon for The Nassau Guardian. As a painter, his style was influenced by the collaborative process of Junkanoo, an annual Caribbean street parade. He was a designer and artistic director for the Junkanoo groups Saxon Superstars and One Family. He has also been involved in several artist collaborations with fellow Bahamian artists and co-founded B-CAUSE, an artist collective dedicated to founding a national art gallery for The Bahamas and a national art school. He has been called a "pioneering voice in Afrofuturism".

Born in Nassau, Burnside attended school in the United States, receiving his BFA and MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught art at the College of The Bahamas until 1990.

Early life and education Stanley Burnside was born in 1947 in Nassau, Bahamas. Sidney Poitier was his first cousin once removed. Burnside was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and received his BFA from the University of Pennsylvania. Burnside's artistic creations outside of Junkanoo employ the exuberance and colors of the cultural celebration. In 1985, Burnside and his brother Jackson collaborated on Faces, a sculptural painting. Burnside characterized the work as a continuation of the art they had created through Junkanoo, saying "It was our attempt to take the process, the Junkanoo collaborative process, into the painting studio."

In 1991, Burnside joined with five other artists to form B-CAUSE (Bahamian Creative Artists United for Serious Expression). The group, which included his brother Jackson, as well as the artists Brent Malone, Maxwell Taylor, John Beadle, and Antonius Roberts, dedicated themselves to the foundation of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and the promotion of a national art school. Burnside, his brother, and Beadle worked together for a season in the Junkanoo shacks before producing the painting series Jammin I. They founded the artist collective Jammin Roberts and Malone joined the collective in 1993, creating Jammin II. Burnside-Beadle-Burnside exhibited their works in Atlanta, Georgia, for the 1996 Summer Olympics. They also exhibited Jammin III in Brazil at the São Paulo Art Biennial. Burnside later joined with Beadle and Antonius Roberts to continue the Jammin series as Burnside, Beadle & Roberts. ArtReview called Burnside a "pioneering voice in Afrofuturism". Burnside was a consult on pageantry for the 2014 IAAF World Relays.

Burnside has exhibited in the United States, France, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Cuba, Ecuador, and Venezuela. His 2000 oil painting Solomon commemorates the Bahamian musician Exuma as King Solomon and is part of the collection of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

Sideburns Burnside was hired by The Nassau Guardian to be their editorial cartoonist in July 1979.

Sideburns cartoons were often single-panelled, featuring characters such as the Shack Rat and the Tourism Goose.

After a 40-year run of Sideburns, including more than 10,000 cartoon panels, His final cartoon was published on 31 July 2019.

Selected exhibitions 2010: The Optical and the Synthetic: A Collection of Recent Paintings by Stan Burnside, The Stan Burnside Gallery 2019: TimeLines: 1950–2007, National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, Nassau 2022: Stanley Burnside: As Time Goes On, Galerie Perrotin, New York