Michael Zansky

Michael Zansky (Born 1947, in the Bronx, New York) is an American artist working in installation art, sculpture, painting and photography. In Kathleen Goncharovs catalog essay, "Michael Zansky: The Wetsern Lands" for Michael Zanskys 2008 exhibition at Nicholas Robinson Gallery in New York, she wrote Zansky resembles an archaeologist who digs through Walter Benjamins ruins of history, or a forensic scientist who examines the minutiae of the crime scene of civilization. He investigates humanitys successes, follies, and especially failures, when Goyas sleep of reason does indeed produce monsters. The masterpieces of the great Spaniard cast a long shadow over Zanskys work, especially The Disasters of War and Los Caprichos, as do other works in the Prado such as Boschs hellish triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, and Velasquez enigmatic Las Meninas. Zansky literally sifts through the detritus of our culture for his materials. Garbage bags stand in for water, torn lampshades for towers, and glass marbles for planets. Discarded action figures, tourist kitsch, toy clowns, and thrift store figurines are all actors on Zanskys historical stage.Zanskys art can be analyzed in various series. History as Ruin, which began in 1992 with an exhi...

Solo Exhibitions2009 Strangelove, Lab Gallery for Installation and Performance Art, New York.2008Nicholas Robinson Gallery, Michael Zansky: The Western Lands, New York, NY,Van Brunt Gallery, The Age of Reason, Beacon, NY.Lab Gallery for Installation & Performance Art, Washington & End Times, New York, NY.2007Sandy Carson Gallery, The Supreme Court, Denver, CO.2006Briggs-Robinson Gallery, History as Ruin, New York, NY.Edsvik Konsthalles, Intelligent Design, Stockholm, Sweden.2005Gigantic Art Space, American Panopticon, New York, NY.Gigantic Art Space/ARCO, Black Box, American Panopticon, Madrid, Spain.2003Briggs-Robinson Gallery, Ten Extra Seconds, New York, NY.2002Universal Concepts Unlimited, Still in Motion, New York, NY.2000Universal Concepts Unlimited, In Human Life, New York, NY.1999Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL.1998Calvin Morris Gallery, New York, NY.Rockland Center for the Arts, Selected Works, West Nyack, NY.1996Berry-Hill Galleries, Manifolds, New York, NY.1993Berry-Hill Galleries, Traces, New York, NY.1991Berry-Hill Galleries, NY, Recent Work, New York.1990Opus Gallery, Coral Gables, FL.1988Dranoff Fine Art, New York, NY.1987Harm Bouckart Gallery, New York, NY.1985White Columns, New York, NY.Performance/Installa...