JOE ZUCKER

Neo, Neo, Neo-Classicism

August 4 - September 4, 2017

The Drawing Room is pleased to present the East End’s first solo gallery exhibition of work by Joe Zucker
who has lived and worked in East Hampton since his move from New York City in
1982.
Throughout his five decade careerJoe Zucker has examined and broadened the meaning of “painting” through the use of unconventional materials including cotton balls, sash cord and industrial mops. Resisting being defined by a recognizable style, Zucker has instead developed each new body of work with a
distinctive approach that consistently pairs his conceptual investigation with an emphasis on process, aesthetic refinement and a touch of irreverence.
This exhibition presents a group of small gypsum and watercolor panels inset within the surface of the gallery walls. Created in 2010, the artist’s intricate 21st century “frescos” of ships and classical architectural motifs
derive from a system of ¼ inch grids scored into 12 inch square sections of sheetrock and articulated with touches of watercolor on the underlying gypsum. Beyond the flickering and nuanced textures that reveal Zucker's affinity for the modular structure of ancient mosaics, these works play with viewers' expectations and underscore his insistence on finding new ways to convert conventional easel painting through a modern idiom. Layers of meaning include inevitable allusions to both the resilience and fragility of civilizations and empires, past and present. Joe Zucker’s work has been presented internationally in solo and group exhibitions including the Whitney
Biennial (1973, 1989, 1995) and the Venice Biennale XXXI and XXXXII (1980, 1986). Zucker’s work is represented in museum collections such as the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; and Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Aachen, Germany, and Vienna, Austria.

In September, the exhibition Joe Zucker: Scrolls will be presented at the Housantonic Museum of Art in Connecticut. Later in 2017 Thames and Hudson will release a new monograph on the artist with essays by John Elderfield, Terry R. Myers and Alex Baconand excerpts from an interview of the artist by
Phong Bu.

http://drawingroom-gallery.com/