Zac Skinner: Anthropocene Apparatus
Friday, September 24, 2021 – Sunday, October 31, 2021
Presented as Part of Future Ecologies
About the Artwork
Zac Skinner, Anthropocene Apparatus, 2017-2021
paintings, dead wood, reclaimed materials, aloe vera plants, detritus, bamboo, plaster, cardboard, earth-pigments, tarp, rope
In my work I attempt to represent human encounters with a damaged post-industrial landscape. My paintings and sculptures are grounded in scientific realities about our present-day environment and impending threats to our existence on Earth. My primary concerns are the need to confront climate change, the polluting of our land, resource wars, and the displacement of disenfranchised peoples and whole ecosystems in the name of progress. My work illustrates that, when confronting these realities, the path to a sustainable future lies within our shared inner strength and creativity.
My paintings reflect my conceptual interest in the Anthropocene landscape and geo-engineering. Some recurring motifs in my work are invented structures that interact with sunlight, wind, and/or rainwater, as well as inhabited nomadic huts, all situated within a barren landscape. Along with portraying these structures, my work tells a narrative of the increasingly violent weather of climate change, and the technological sublime, to reflect on the dangerously dysfunctional interdependence of man and nature. I create paintings that flow freely between authenticity and parody, fetishized forms and flatness, the Romantic sublime and post-apocalypse, invention and destruction.
In the Geo-Robots series I confront serious ecological issues with humor and playfulness. The sculptures blur the line between artist, geo-engineer, and backyard tinkerer. Precariously constructed from simple materials, these objects are a meditation on the fragile relationship between humanity and nature. I often look to the act of camping as indirect inspiration, as it is one of the last cultural rituals asking us to bring only what we need, cultivate our self-reliance, and promote a temporary stewardship of a shared wilderness.
About the Artist
Zac Skinner’s art confronts climate change. He has held solo exhibitions with Wave Hill, Bronx NY, Garrison Art Center, Garrison NY, BAU Gallery, Beacon NY, the Ann Felton Multicultural Center, Onondaga Community College, Syracuse NY, and at Matteawan Gallery’s Artist in Residence Exhibit, Beacon NY. Recent group exhibitions have included Spring Break Art Show, NY, and CICA Museum, Korea.
Skinner received a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and BFA from SUNY New Paltz College. He is an Instructor of Painting and Drawing at Ramapo College, NJ, and lives and works in Beacon, NY, USA.
More Info: zacharyskinner.com / @zacskinner