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John Zurier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Zurier
Born1956 (age 67–68)
Santa Monica, California, United States
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forPainting
MovementAbstract
Websitewww.johnzurier.com

John Zurier (born 1956) is an American abstract painter, known for his minimal, near-monochrome paintings.[1] His work has shown across the United States as well as in Europe and Japan. He has worked in Reykjavik, Iceland and Berkeley, California. Zurier lives in Berkeley, California.

Education

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John Zurier was born in 1956 in Santa Monica, California.[citation needed]

He received a BA degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983.[citation needed]

Career and exhibition

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Zurier's work has been shown in galleries and museums since 1980. Zurier was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial in New York City,[2] the 2008 Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea.[3] and the 2012 São Paulo Art Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil.

Style and technique

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John Zurier, Héraðsdalur 3, 2014-15, Oil on linen, 22 1/16 x 24 13/16 inches (56.04 x 63.02 cm)

Zurier paints abstract, near-monochrome paintings whose colors range from muted tones to vibrant hues.[4][5] Zurier's abstract paintings are informed by abstract expressionism, Post-War French painting, and Japanese aesthetics. His main interest is in simplicity, surface modulation, and color, as those are tied to people's experience of time.[6] Zurier's reductive paintings show his dedication to color, the material fact of painting, and the history of painting. His soft-hued abstract paintings play at crossing the line into representation with the sensation of nature, the silence of luminous weather, and the human touch. Capturing qualities of light and weather effects,[7] Zurier employs a range of brushstrokes and surface treatments,[8] varying from revealing the texture of the canvas or obscuring it with layers of thick impasto.[4][9][10] Zurier's work has been described as transcending the gestural and material to evoke the emotional.[11][12] While minimal, Zurier's practice is not minimalist, but rather composed of quiet works that focus on the structure and possibilities of a brushstroke. “I think the Japanese painter Ike No Taiga [1723–1776] was right,” Zurier has said, “the most difficult thing to achieve in painting is creating a space where absolutely nothing has been painted.”[13][14]

Public collections

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Exhibitions

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Selected solo exhibitions
Selected group exhibitions

Monotype projects

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  • Aurobora Press, San Francisco, CA, 1998 and 2002
  • Garner Tullis Workshop, Santa Barbara, CA, 1989–1990
  • Garner Tullis Workshop, Emeryville, CA, 1985–1986

Awards and teaching

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  • John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 2010[15]
  • PresentEminent Adjunct Professor, California College of the Arts, 2006[16]

Books, monographs and catalogs

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  • John Zurier: Paintings 1981-2014, (artist monograph), Essay by Robert Storr and foreword by Lawrence Rinder, 2015
  • 2012 São Paulo Bienal, The Imminence of Poetics, (catalog), Luis Pérez-Oramas, Tobi Maier, André Severo, Isabela Villanueva, 2012
  • Repeat After Me - Poems by Bill Berkson, Watercolors by John Zurier, Published by Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 2011
  • 2010 California Biennial: Orange County Museum of Art, (catalog), Sarah C. Bancroft, 2010
  • To: Night (Contemporary Representations of the Night), (catalog), curated by Joachim Pissarro, Mara Hoberman, Julia Moreno, 2008
  • The 7th Gwangju Biennial: 2008 Annual Report, (catalog), curated by Okwui Enwezor, et al., 2008
  • John Zurier Night Paintings: 2007–2008, (catalog), Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
  • Pope, Alexander, John Zurier: New Paintings, (catalog), Text from “The Essay on Man” San Francisco, CA: Gallery Paule Anglim, 2005
  • EXODUS: Between Promise and Fulfillment, (catalog), Essay by Anthony Downey, Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, England, 2003
  • Rinder, Lawrence, et al. Whitney Biennial 2002, (catalog), New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2002
  • John Zurier Paintings 1997–1999, (catalog), Interview with Lawrence Rinder, San Francisco, CA: Gallery Paule Anglim, 2000
  • Practice and Process: New Painterly Abstraction in California, (catalog), Armory Center for the Arts and the Richmond Art Center, Pasadena and Richmond, CA, 1998
  • Abstraction Absolved: Ten Bay Area Painters, (catalog) Introduction by Keith Lachowicz, Oakland, CA: Mills College Art Gallery, 1996
  • Garner Tullis Workshop: Monotypes, (catalog) Introduction by Memory Holloway, Praz/Vully, Switzerland, Galerie Au Poisson Rouge, 1986

References

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  1. ^ "John Zurier". nordenhake.com. Retrieved 2019-07-10.
  2. ^ "Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 2002". Whitney.org. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  3. ^ "Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea, 2008". Gwangjubiennale.org. Archived from the original on 2014-10-28. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  4. ^ a b Feldman, Melissa (September 2009). "John Zurier, Gallery Paule Anglim". Frieze (125). Archived from the original on 2015-12-08.
  5. ^ Ebony, David (May 12, 2015). "John Zurier at Peter Blum". Art in America.
  6. ^ Stopa, Jason (April 5, 2018). "Ambiguity as Strength: A Conversation with John Zurier". Art in America.
  7. ^ Bateman, Henry (March 14, 2015). "Memories in the Landscape". The Ex Expat.
  8. ^ Sultan, Altoon (February 24, 2015). "John Zurier: Poetic Reticence". Studio and Garden.
  9. ^ Hamlin, Jesse (April 4, 2001). "John Zurier Captures Joy in Fields of Color". San Francisco Chronicle. p. C2.
  10. ^ Ray, Eleanor (March 5, 2015). "John Zurier at Peter Blum". The Brooklyn Rail.
  11. ^ Baker, Kenneth (June 18, 2005). "Painting as decoration, agitation or just a futile expression". San Francisco Chronicle.
  12. ^ Baker, Kenneth (October 22, 2011). "John Zurier, Paintings and Watercolors". San Francisco Chronicle.
  13. ^ "John Zurier: Artist's Statement". johnzurier.com. January 2008.
  14. ^ Artist John Zurier in Berlin on YouTube
  15. ^ "John Zurier". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2024-06-05.
  16. ^ "John Zurier". California College of the Arts. Archived from the original on 2016-07-02.[failed verification]
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