Artist Zane York to Speak at Opening

Artist Zane York of Brooklyn, N.Y., will give an artist talk at 7 p.m. Friday, March 22, in the lobby of Rodman Center for the Arts on the Ripon College campus. The talk will be in conjunction with an opening reception on his statement for “Wunderkammer” (Cabinet of Curiosities) in Caestecker Gallery. The exhibit will run through April 19.

York was born in Nebraska and raised all over the Midwest. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and received a master of fine arts degree in painting from the New York Academy of Art. His oil paintings and drawings depict insects and taxidermy in unsettling still life.

“I paint them for a variety of reasons, but most simply put, life fascinates me,” York says. “I find animals and insects to be a great conduit for looking more closely at ourselves. Our relationships with creatures reflect quite purely our values, passions and fears. I see our relationships with animals as a distillation of ourselves.

“I paint a variety of subjects; still life, landscape, figurative, etc., the point being that I start with a visual that resonates with me regardless of the subject of the painting. I accumulate many things that inspire me: taxidermy, bones, insects and artifacts, but also less palpable things such as sounds, memories and experiences. I think they all belong in the wunderkammer; it is a personal collection of of ‘wonder’ after all.”

Exhibitions of York’s paintings and drawings have been held in New York, St. Barthelemy, New Jersey, Missouri and Minnesota. He has received the Prince of Wales Scholarship, Posey Foundation Scholarship, Milton J. Gardener Memorial Scholarship, N.Y.A.A. Scholarship, and a Faculty Research Grant while he attended UW-Oshkosh.

More information and photos about his work can be found on his website at http://www.zaneyork.com

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