September 2010 Archives

(This is the final draft.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Zak Smith
A Show About Nothing
October 7 through November 6, 2010
Opening reception: October 7, 6 to 8 pm

Fredericks & Freiser is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Zak Smith. Unfortunately, he has once again refused to make art about anything, which does make it rather difficult to write a traditional press release.

We keep asking "Hey Zak, is this 20-foot drawing you made intended to subtly undermine normative assumptions about the relationship of public to private spaces in our increasingly de-centered psychosocial environment?" and he keeps saying things like "No." Or we say, "Zak, are these paintings of porn actresses that you know meant to offer a critical counter-narrative to popular depictions of gender?" and he says, "Nope. Maybe you could fill out the press release by using one of those on-line postmodern text generators."

"We tried that, and got: 'Debord's critique of the structural paradigm of discourse suggests that sexual identity has objective value. Several deconstructivisms concerning nihilism may be revealed.' But Zak, our attachment to outdated Judeo-Christian cultural assumptions demands that we can't allow ourselves to accept pleasure unless it has meaning. Plus, y'know, we need a paragraph where we quote you saying something smart."

"How about: 'Meaning is the most interesting thing about a bad painting and the least interesting thing about a good painting'? Can I go now? I have a lot of work to do."

We do find some consolation, however, in the fact that the pictures are excruciatingly beautiful.

About The Artist
Zak Smith was born in 1976 and lives and works in Los Angeles.  His work is, somewhat surprisingly, included in several public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Saatchi Gallery, London; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, where his work was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.  His work has also been exhibited at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Contemporary Museum of Art, Baltimore; The National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC; and The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. In addition to his recently published memoir We Did Porn, two books of his art work have been published--Pictures of Girls and Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow. This is his fifth show at Fredericks & Freiser.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Zak Smith
A Show About Nothing
October 7th through November 6th, 2010

Fredericks and Freiser Gallery is distressed to have to announce that Zak Smith keeps refusing to make art about anything and we don't know why.

We keep going "Hey Zak, is this 20-foot drawing you made intended to subtly undermine normative assumptions about the relationship of public to private spaces in our
increasingly de-centred psychosocial environment?" and he keeps saying things like "No."

Or we say "Zak, are these paintings of porn actresses that you know meant to offer a critical counternarrative to popular depictions of gender and sexuality?" and he goes "Nope."

And we keep saying, "Hey, come on, make some conceptual art. That's what everyone's doing and it's terribly thought-provoking--haven't you noticed how much more thoughtful
people are these days? And we know you're into, like, politics and stuff, conceptual art is really progressive--look at all this progress we're constantly seeing thanks to the phenomenal impact conceptual art's
had on everyone."

But he doesn't listen, he keeps just making pictures that are pretty. Well, beautiful. I mean, ok, we have to admit the pictures are truly gorgeous and more visually absorbing than anything
we've ever seen. But, really--come on--this is a side issue. Unparalleled and visceral sensual pleasure--is anybody really interested in that? These are difficult times and we keep trying to
explain to Smith that the only way to tackle them is to hire some assistant to make something extremely boring and give it a title that sounds like some stoner trying to remember something Nietzsche said.  But
Zak Smith just keeps not making conceptual art.

"But it's so subversive and sophisticated!" we say "And it makes money!"

"No," he says "I have to stay here at my desk and finish making this look pretty."

"But our attachment to outdated Judeo-Christian cultural assumptions demands we can't allow ourselves to accept pleasure unless it has some meaning."

"Sucks to be you, I guess."

"What about that thing Roland Barthes said--'Everything has a meaning, or nothing has. To put it another way, one could say that art is without noise'. I mean the pictures must mean something, right?"

"Maybe. Who cares?"

"But it's ok if we tell people they mean something, right? Like they might be able to put their own meaning in there if they want?"

"Sure, whatever."

About The Artist:

Zak Smith was born in 1976 and lives in works in Los Angeles. His work is, somewhat surprisingly, included in several public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York and The Whitney Museum of American Art. His work has been exhibited at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, The Contemporary Museum of Art, Baltimore; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, where he was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. In addition to his recently published memoir "We Did Porn" about his experiences "acting" in adult films, two books of his artwork have been published--"Pictures of Girls" and "Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow".

(in progress)(acrylic on paper)(2/3rds of it visible here)(show's up in a week and a half)