Zak Prekop Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
My work is materially direct, usually comprised of oil paint on canvas or canvas and paper. The choice of material surface upon which I begin my paintings remains visible in the finished works. Paintings made on raw canvas allow the color of the cotton or linen to show though the grids and gestural marks that I paint into their woven surfaces. Works painted over paper collaged onto canvas follow contours of the cut and ripped paper with oil paint or allow the relief of the pieces of paper overlapping each other to be visible under the paint. In this way the paintings are complete objects where all the material that forms them, constitutes the work.
On the other hand, my paintings work with illusions and color relationships that activate the visual space within and in front of the paintings. High contrasting dot patterns or color vibrations cause the apparent distance from the viewer of the various elements of the paintings to shift upon viewing the work. The paintings are visually unfixed and exist off the surface as much as on. Some of my works refer to the stretcher bars behind the painting with painted lines placed at an equivalent position on the surface. In this case a kind of transparency is created where an image is painted of what physically exists just behind the surface. The space behind the painting, its surface and the visual space in front of it are woven together to create paintings that are contingent with the viewer’s position and the with the time that they have spent with the painting. The relationship between the visual and physical aspects of painting forms the core of my practice around which I experiment and search for ways to make new paintings.
I see painting as functioning in essentially two ways, both of which involve the position of a viewer. One is interior where a viewer enters a painting visually and spends time reading what the painting wants to communicate and how it came to be. The other is exterior where a viewer could pass by it and understand it as a flat object and as part of the space it is in, including it’s greater social context. I think about these two possibilities for a painting and want them both to be a part of my work. I like the image of a person walking past a painting at one moment and staring into at another. This idea is made literal in some of my paintings more than others but it is a part of all of them. My paintings that seem monochromatic or involve all-over patterns like grids of dots can be accepted as flat and walked past, but they contain an interior space that can be seen more slowly as well, through linear images submerged in the monochromes or through gestural under-paintings showing through the dot patterns. Although this model of painting uses an opposition, both sides are affirmative rather than critical. They are both ideas about what paintings can do.
My work is materially direct, usually comprised of oil paint on canvas or canvas and paper. The choice of material surface upon which I begin my paintings remains visible in the finished works. Paintings made on raw canvas allow the color of the cotton or linen to show though the grids and gestural marks that I paint into their woven surfaces. Works painted over paper collaged onto canvas follow contours of the cut and ripped paper with oil paint or allow the relief of the pieces of paper overlapping each other to be visible under the paint. In this way the paintings are complete objects where all the material that forms them, constitutes the work.
On the other hand, my paintings work with illusions and color relationships that activate the visual space within and in front of the paintings. High contrasting dot patterns or color vibrations cause the apparent distance from the viewer of the various elements of the paintings to shift upon viewing the work. The paintings are visually unfixed and exist off the surface as much as on. Some of my works refer to the stretcher bars behind the painting with painted lines placed at an equivalent position on the surface. In this case a kind of transparency is created where an image is painted of what physically exists just behind the surface. The space behind the painting, its surface and the visual space in front of it are woven together to create paintings that are contingent with the viewer’s position and the with the time that they have spent with the painting. The relationship between the visual and physical aspects of painting forms the core of my practice around which I experiment and search for ways to make new paintings.
I see painting as functioning in essentially two ways, both of which involve the position of a viewer. One is interior where a viewer enters a painting visually and spends time reading what the painting wants to communicate and how it came to be. The other is exterior where a viewer could pass by it and understand it as a flat object and as part of the space it is in, including it’s greater social context. I think about these two possibilities for a painting and want them both to be a part of my work. I like the image of a person walking past a painting at one moment and staring into at another. This idea is made literal in some of my paintings more than others but it is a part of all of them. My paintings that seem monochromatic or involve all-over patterns like grids of dots can be accepted as flat and walked past, but they contain an interior space that can be seen more slowly as well, through linear images submerged in the monochromes or through gestural under-paintings showing through the dot patterns. Although this model of painting uses an opposition, both sides are affirmative rather than critical. They are both ideas about what paintings can do.
CV
ZAK PREKOP
Born 1979, Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
EDUCATION
Staedelschule – Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Guest Student, 2009
School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago IL
Masters of Fine Arts, 2008
Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA
Bachelor of Fine Arts, 2001
EXHIBITIONS
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery – New York, NY
“Shape Language” 2010
PS1 – Queens, NY
“Greater New York” 2010
Sutton Lane – London, UK/Paris, France
“What Where” 2010
Zach Feuer Gallery – New York, NY
“Spontaneous Generation” 2010
Shaheen Gallery – Cleveland, OH
“Untitled (Painting)” 2010
Lisa Cooley Gallery - New York, NY
“John Pestoni and Zak Prekop” 2009
Roger Bjorkholmen Galleri - Stockholm, Sweden
“Rich Aldrich, Zak Prekop, Lesley Vance” 2009
The Caribic – Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
“Still Life” 2009
Karin Lovegrove Gallery - Los Angeles, CA
“Varda Caivano, Matt Connors, Thomas Hylander, Zak Prekop”
2008-2009
Shane Campbell Gallery - Chicago, IL
“Zak Prekop” 2008-2009
Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Ferndale, MI
“Painting” 2008-2009
Lisa Cooley Gallery - New York, NY
“Cregswell Crags” 2008
Shane Campbell Gallery – Chicago, IL
“Bianca Beck, Josh Brand, Matt Connors, Zak Prekop, Hayley
Tompkins, Sue Tompkins” 2008
New York City Pilsen – Chicago, IL
“Re-presentation” 2008
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL
MFA Thesis 2008
Guertin’s Graphics – Chicagio, IL
“Bauhaus Art Show” 2008
Devening Projects and Editions - Chicago, IL
“More or Less” with Rodney Carswell, 2007
Rowland Contemporary - Chicago, IL
“The Nature of Disruption” 2007
CRG Gallery - New York, NY
“Greater Brooklyn” 2005
PROJECTS
Harris Lieberman Gallery – New York, NY
“The Art of the Hurrays/Skeksis Head” with Hurray, 2010
Evanston Art Center – Evanston, IL
“From a Position” with Heather Guertin, 2009
Devening Projects and Editions - Chicago, IL
“What Was the Idea” curator, 2009
Rowley Kennerk Gallery - Chicago, IL
“Rotations” with Heather Guertin and Neil Infalvi, 2008
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL
“Ghost Art is a Lie” with Heather Guertin and Neil Infalvi, 2008
Alogon - Chicago, IL
“No Legs” curator, 2007
Elizabeth Dee Gallery/QED - New York, NY/ Los Angeles, CA
“Bring the War Home” with Hurray, 2006
The Mandrake - Los Angeles, CA
“Hurray” with Hurray, 2006
Dorsky Gallery - Queens, NY
“The Fact Abstract” with Hurray, 2006
The Kitchen - New York, NY
“North Drive Press: The Movie” performance with Hurray, 2006
Nicole Klansbrun Gallery - New York, NY
“Hurray” with Hurray 2005
AWARDS AND LECTURES
Kent State Visiting Artist Lecture, 2010
Carnegie Mellon Visiting Artist, 2009
Joan Mitchell MFA Grant nominee, 2008
Trustee Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
2006
PUBLICATIONS
Flash Art
November-December 2009, review of “John Pestoni and Zak
Prekop” by Gregory Montreuil
New City
December 2008, review of “Zak Prekop” by Danny Orendorff
New York Times
September 2008, review of “Cregswell Crags” by Roberta
Smith
July 2005, review of “Greater Brooklyn” by Roberta Smith
Art Slant
June 2008, review of ““Bianca Beck, Josh Brand, Matt Connors,
Zak Prekop, Hayley Tompkins, Sue Tompkins” by Erik
Wenzel
Time Out Chicago
Febuary 2007, review of “The Nature of Disturbance” by Erik
Wenzel
Artforum
February 2006, Top Ten by Matt Keegan (for Hurray)
ZAK PREKOP
Born 1979, Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
EDUCATION
Staedelschule – Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Guest Student, 2009
School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago IL
Masters of Fine Arts, 2008
Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA
Bachelor of Fine Arts, 2001
EXHIBITIONS
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery – New York, NY
“Shape Language” 2010
PS1 – Queens, NY
“Greater New York” 2010
Sutton Lane – London, UK/Paris, France
“What Where” 2010
Zach Feuer Gallery – New York, NY
“Spontaneous Generation” 2010
Shaheen Gallery – Cleveland, OH
“Untitled (Painting)” 2010
Lisa Cooley Gallery - New York, NY
“John Pestoni and Zak Prekop” 2009
Roger Bjorkholmen Galleri - Stockholm, Sweden
“Rich Aldrich, Zak Prekop, Lesley Vance” 2009
The Caribic – Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
“Still Life” 2009
Karin Lovegrove Gallery - Los Angeles, CA
“Varda Caivano, Matt Connors, Thomas Hylander, Zak Prekop”
2008-2009
Shane Campbell Gallery - Chicago, IL
“Zak Prekop” 2008-2009
Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Ferndale, MI
“Painting” 2008-2009
Lisa Cooley Gallery - New York, NY
“Cregswell Crags” 2008
Shane Campbell Gallery – Chicago, IL
“Bianca Beck, Josh Brand, Matt Connors, Zak Prekop, Hayley
Tompkins, Sue Tompkins” 2008
New York City Pilsen – Chicago, IL
“Re-presentation” 2008
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL
MFA Thesis 2008
Guertin’s Graphics – Chicagio, IL
“Bauhaus Art Show” 2008
Devening Projects and Editions - Chicago, IL
“More or Less” with Rodney Carswell, 2007
Rowland Contemporary - Chicago, IL
“The Nature of Disruption” 2007
CRG Gallery - New York, NY
“Greater Brooklyn” 2005
PROJECTS
Harris Lieberman Gallery – New York, NY
“The Art of the Hurrays/Skeksis Head” with Hurray, 2010
Evanston Art Center – Evanston, IL
“From a Position” with Heather Guertin, 2009
Devening Projects and Editions - Chicago, IL
“What Was the Idea” curator, 2009
Rowley Kennerk Gallery - Chicago, IL
“Rotations” with Heather Guertin and Neil Infalvi, 2008
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL
“Ghost Art is a Lie” with Heather Guertin and Neil Infalvi, 2008
Alogon - Chicago, IL
“No Legs” curator, 2007
Elizabeth Dee Gallery/QED - New York, NY/ Los Angeles, CA
“Bring the War Home” with Hurray, 2006
The Mandrake - Los Angeles, CA
“Hurray” with Hurray, 2006
Dorsky Gallery - Queens, NY
“The Fact Abstract” with Hurray, 2006
The Kitchen - New York, NY
“North Drive Press: The Movie” performance with Hurray, 2006
Nicole Klansbrun Gallery - New York, NY
“Hurray” with Hurray 2005
AWARDS AND LECTURES
Kent State Visiting Artist Lecture, 2010
Carnegie Mellon Visiting Artist, 2009
Joan Mitchell MFA Grant nominee, 2008
Trustee Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
2006
PUBLICATIONS
Flash Art
November-December 2009, review of “John Pestoni and Zak
Prekop” by Gregory Montreuil
New City
December 2008, review of “Zak Prekop” by Danny Orendorff
New York Times
September 2008, review of “Cregswell Crags” by Roberta
Smith
July 2005, review of “Greater Brooklyn” by Roberta Smith
Art Slant
June 2008, review of ““Bianca Beck, Josh Brand, Matt Connors,
Zak Prekop, Hayley Tompkins, Sue Tompkins” by Erik
Wenzel
Time Out Chicago
Febuary 2007, review of “The Nature of Disturbance” by Erik
Wenzel
Artforum
February 2006, Top Ten by Matt Keegan (for Hurray)
Incomplete Division (Red) 28”x24” Oil on canvas
2010
Untitled 28”x24”
Oil on linen
2010
Black/Green 20”x16”
Oil on canvas
2010
Blue Division 18”x14”
Oil on canvas
2010
Red Division 36”x28”
Oil and paper on canvas
2010
Untitled 72”x48”
Oil and paper on canvas
2010
Untitled72"x48”
Oil and paper on canvas
2010
Kepes 20"x18”
Oil on linen
2009
Untitled 1 60"x48”
Oil on canvas
2009
Untitled 36”x28”
Oil on linen
2009
Backwards Painting36”x28”
Oil on linen
2009
Untitled 36”x28”
Oil on linen
2009
Untitled 20”x16”
Oil on canvas
2009
Untitled 16”x14”
Oil and paper on canvas
2009
Untitled 16”x13”
Oil and paper on canvas
2009
Without Arc 20”x18”
Oil on canvas
2009
Recognize With Light 36”x28”
Oil on canvas
2009
Am Main 51”x40”
Oil on canvas
2009
Window 31”x24”
Oil on canvas
2009
Viewing Object 35”x28”
Oil on canvas
2009