Zach Seeger, A Complascent Shrug Towards ApocolypseI came across Zach Seeger's work through a friend of mine who studied with Zach at a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. My friend believed that there was an affinity between the way I work and Zach. I began to research the work and realized that although there are certain similarities, there were also considerable differences. The main thing being that Zach's painting is some of the most advanced and interesting painting I've seen by a living and relatively unknown painter in my life.
Zach lives in Binghamton, NY which is about 5 hours north west of New York City. It's not exactly a hot spot for a young artist. Binghamton is mostly known for it's fine SUNY college, which is where Zach received his BFA. The artist must find some solace in this remote location outside the squalor of urban glory, because the work exhibits a well of creative ooze that the urban areas seem to be lacking. For instance, visiting galleries in Chelsea frequently, I notice that there seems to be an obsession with painting that lacks any form of expression. Abstract formalism, like it has for almost 50 years dominates American painting. Painters come and go out of art schools painting exactly like their professors. This to me is a real problem because it suggests that we're in a cultural rut as far as painting is concerned.
Then comes an artist like Zach who's abilities seem to simmer above these urban artists. It seems as if he has an infinite reservoir of creative energy and he does not contain it by any stretch of the imagination. He pours his marks onto canvases sometimes as big as 20 feet and bombards the canvases with designs and images that almost explode out of the artist vivid imagination. The color of these works are harmonious and psychedelic. If the music of the 1960's could be translated into paint, they are visually realized in Zach's work. In a painting entitled "a complacent shrug toward the apocalypse," we see the artists range as far as figuration vs. decorative and how he can combine all of these elements to create a balanced composition on a scale of 144" x 109!" Zach uses all kinds of materials, but in this painting he uses oil paint. His sense of control over oil paint is enormous, especially for me because I struggle with the medium. For him he uses oils like acrylic, and combines his use of transparent washes and opaque glazes with no strain to his palette, which remains vibrant and shimmering. The primitive quality of his imagery is magical in the sense that it seems to flow from his mind without any filter and he leaves no space unnoticed. There is no such thing as dead space in a Zach Seeger work.
Zach is a primitive painting shaman with magical ability. His work transcends our own time. He is a modern caveman painting the future but digging from the well of primordial ooze. Galleries, patrons, and artists alike take notice, because a painter like this comes along but once in a lifetime.
http://www.zachseeger.com/
Zach lives in Binghamton, NY which is about 5 hours north west of New York City. It's not exactly a hot spot for a young artist. Binghamton is mostly known for it's fine SUNY college, which is where Zach received his BFA. The artist must find some solace in this remote location outside the squalor of urban glory, because the work exhibits a well of creative ooze that the urban areas seem to be lacking. For instance, visiting galleries in Chelsea frequently, I notice that there seems to be an obsession with painting that lacks any form of expression. Abstract formalism, like it has for almost 50 years dominates American painting. Painters come and go out of art schools painting exactly like their professors. This to me is a real problem because it suggests that we're in a cultural rut as far as painting is concerned.
Then comes an artist like Zach who's abilities seem to simmer above these urban artists. It seems as if he has an infinite reservoir of creative energy and he does not contain it by any stretch of the imagination. He pours his marks onto canvases sometimes as big as 20 feet and bombards the canvases with designs and images that almost explode out of the artist vivid imagination. The color of these works are harmonious and psychedelic. If the music of the 1960's could be translated into paint, they are visually realized in Zach's work. In a painting entitled "a complacent shrug toward the apocalypse," we see the artists range as far as figuration vs. decorative and how he can combine all of these elements to create a balanced composition on a scale of 144" x 109!" Zach uses all kinds of materials, but in this painting he uses oil paint. His sense of control over oil paint is enormous, especially for me because I struggle with the medium. For him he uses oils like acrylic, and combines his use of transparent washes and opaque glazes with no strain to his palette, which remains vibrant and shimmering. The primitive quality of his imagery is magical in the sense that it seems to flow from his mind without any filter and he leaves no space unnoticed. There is no such thing as dead space in a Zach Seeger work.
Zach is a primitive painting shaman with magical ability. His work transcends our own time. He is a modern caveman painting the future but digging from the well of primordial ooze. Galleries, patrons, and artists alike take notice, because a painter like this comes along but once in a lifetime.
http://www.zachseeger.com/
