Exhibition runs from August 27 to October 17. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9am-6pm. Reception: Friday, September 14 @ 6:00 p.m.
Stefan Zoller’s “Skeletal Trees,” based on a series of diagrammatic structural drawings made by his paternal grandfather and inspired by a poem written by his own father, provides a unique perspective and connection between Zoller and the grandfather he never knew.
Image caption: “Ash,” 2015-2018, acrylic on canvas, mounted on panel, 32×42 inches
Artist Statement:
“My work is based upon a series of diagrammatic drawings made by J. Harold Zoller; a civil engineer, my paternal grandfather, and a man I never knew. He made them as a student in the mid-1940’s before his service in the Army Corps of Engineers during WWII. In their original context, they functioned as graphic equations to determine varying stresses and movements that structures would undergo when built. The drawings are disciplined, austere, and above all else, practical and purposeful. For those who knew him, these drawings reflect a man who personified the same characteristics within his own life.
As I trace, transfer, and transform these drawings, I feel a connection – a communication even, with a man gone a decade before my birth.
Layering heavy, transparent material over these diagrams creates a physical barrier and a distance between it and the viewer. This entombment creates a remove, a displacement. Any further attempts to alter it only serves to further obscure and increase its distance. It becomes a metaphor for the types of distance and displacement that loss creates. The material qualities embody the hazy and filtered manner in which memory operates.”
