Each of the preceding four posthumous shows have been organized around a different Bierk theme, the first being an overall view of the work; the second included landscapes, with no figure or history paintings; the third was an homage to the artists of antiquity, including works after Greek and Roman sculptures, with a few landscapes. "History" presented some of the artist's most heroic works. The final exhibition focuses once again on the landscape, a favorite subject of David Bierk throughout his oeuvre, along with a few still-life pieces and classical sculpture images.

Bierk loved the landscape, the earth and sky, which he painted over and over during the years of his life, always with a signature glowing golden sky. Perhaps of all his subjects, the landscape was nearest and dearest, the most intensely personal, the most fraught with feeling, the broadest palette for his sumptuous and rich brush filled with oil, and the vehicle through which he could express his dismay at the devastation man wielded to his own most important resource. Bierk called his landscapes “the heart of his creative output.”

Landscape on Copper (Dusk), Locked in Steel
2001, oil on copper, steel, 23 x 22 1/2 inches

Several of the paintings are surrounded by Bierk’s signature steel, juxtaposing a hard, weathered industrial material of no inherent value with his oil paintings, works of enduring value. For Bierk the surround was as important as the landscape, the entirety conceptualized at the time he began work on a painting.

Earth Eulogy (TRUST), after William Keith
1988, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 44 1/2 inches