For immediate release:

All The Walls by FRANK ZADLO
JANUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2016
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 6-9PM

VICTORI + MO is pleased to present All The Walls, a group of new and recent work that continues Zadlo’s inquiries into ways of interpreting reality. Starting with a minimalist idea of a landscape – a single, horizontal line bisecting a square – Zadlo is investigating material relationships within sculpture (cast cement), works on paper (gouache studies), and moving images (HD video). In the repetition of this formal construct the work draws attention to itself and opens up the possibility for his other main concern which is how to approach a landscape, and the materials it is made of, without relying on existing ideas of what those things are.

The phenomena of ‘ghosting’ in concrete construction refers to visual manifestations of interior structures and processes on the surface of a cured slab; this translates into what appears to be a material frozen in the act of drying. The square surfaces of A Ghosting I., III., and IV contain the visual information of ghostings in the upper portions, while the lower sections are reliefs of constructed textures. The pieces are heavy, but appear light and floating; they are simultaneously minimalist sculpture and abstract painting. Their scale references an average sidewalk square, and these familiarities connect the metaphor of ‘ghosting’ to other, unseen landscapes. The material of cement is forever attached to labor, progress, class systems, environmental footprint, et cetera, and the landscapes of these issues are certainly filled with unseen structures, processes, and ghosts.

Zadlo approaches his works on paper as ‘studies’ within the context and tradition of large sculpture. They are studies in ways to interact with a viscous material. He is looking for a communion with water, paint, time, and gravity. Each piece becomes a singular event, or a record of the way himself and these elements of process interacted on a unique day and time. Where the sculptures satisfy on a larger scale, the drawings allow Zadlo to get a more intimate, and more immediate feeling of discovery.

The cement casts and the gouache studies imply movement through their frozen drying processes. In the HD video, This on This (Landscapes), Zadlo is inverting that notion by conjuring the feeling of stillness through constant motion. The video combines footage he recorded on his phone and NASA footage of different views from space. Presented on a stripped monitor, and mounted on a found shipping crate, the role of technology in understanding a contemporary landscape is brought to the forefront and reinforces the thematic metaphor of ‘ghosting’.

About the artist: Frank Zadlo received an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons in 2008. His work has been exhibited at Victori + Mo (New York, NY), Young Projects Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Torrance Shipman Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Parallel Art Space (Ridgewood, NY), and NurtureArt (Brooklyn, NY). The L Magazine, Hyperallergic, Seattle Stranger, and NY Arts Magazine have all covered his works. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn.