In 1915 Burlyuk together with family moved to Ural. In 1917 he returned to Moscow and gave reports in Café of poets. In 1918–1920 Burlyuk visited Ural, Siberia, the Far East and delivered lectures about modern art. He published books of poems Lyseyushchij khvost (“Bald tail”) and Siberia.

In 1920 Burlyuk left the Far East Republic for Japan, in 1922 he moved to USA and lived in New York.

Till 1930s Burlyuk’s works were exposed at exhibitions in the Soviet Union and exhibitions of soviet art abroad, particularly at the First Russian art exhibition in the Gallery van Diemen in Berlin (1922), at the exhibition of modernism in Leningrad (1927), exhibition of the group 13 in Moscow (1931), exhibition of modern Russian art in Philadelphia (1932) and others. Burlyuk participated in international exhibitions in Brooklyn Museum (1923, 1927), art centers in Philadelphia (1926), Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, San Francisco, Washington. In 1940s–1960s Burlyuk cooperated with ACA Art Gallery in New York.

David Burlyuk was engaged also in literature and public activities. In 1920s–1930s he delivered lectures about USSR in working clubs of USA. Burlyuk published articles, feuilletons and reviews of soviet newspapers in American and soviet editions Russian Voice, New World. Burlyuk was a member of the literature group Hammer and Sickle and The John Reed Club. He published several books of poetry and theoretical work Entelechy, in which he declared himself father of proletarian culture and the first Bolshevik in literature. In 1930s–1960s Burlyuk together with his wife published the magazine The Color and Rhyme.

David Burlyuk was one of the leaders of Russian art avant-garde of the end of 1900s — 1910s. His role in art and culture of that time was important. He organized a lot of exhibitions and public debates. He was an author of many polemic articles, pamphlets, leaflets, manifests. That is why V. V. Kamensky called him the father of Russian futurism.

In his early period of creative work, Burlyuk painted in impressionistic style. In 1910s his painting and graphic works became relative and expressly disharmonious. Abroad he painted portraits, still lifes, landscapes in his own manner, which was close to primitivism; fantastic paintings in grotesque manner — it is characteristic blottesque and smooth pictorial surface. In 1960s Burlyuk began to paint in realistic manner, created a lot of landscaped and portraits.

Works by David Burlyuk are in many museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum in New York, Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum and others.