Mornin'

Etienne Zack paints genre-defying still lifes and landscapes, brimming with art historical metaphors, pop culture references, and illogical and slightly surreal juxtapositions. Zack often creates sculptural assemblages from objects in his studio, which serve as a point of departure for his paintings. "Mornin’" was inspired by Zack’s memory of seeing a media image of the decor in the barracks of American soldiers in Iraq: pin-ups torn from magazines are blurred and smudged into a fleshy mish-mash, and objects are strewn across a coffee table. But in the foreground, a towering floral appendage spirals upwards, demanding attention. Festive and bright, the construction looks superimposed, the thick daubs of paint dissonant on the smooth surface. For Zack, painting is a way of bringing together incongruent ideas and images to co-exist, encouraging the viewer to tease out an explanation.