I make mixed-media sculptures and animations reimagining the relationship of humans to their lived environments. These works combine printed photographs and found objects into sculptures aimed at capturing the psychological resonance that charges a room, the history locked in a feature of the NYC geography.
My animations document the sculpting process using stop-motion animation techniques, and explore a range of compositing methods to give shape to the invisible forces that charge our environments.
A car interior deforms into a kind of cephalopod, its ergonomic surfaces becoming a second, plastic skin for its occupant. Another recent sculpture inverts the figure and its environment, depicting the human subject as a container for microbial and mythic ecologies.
I began making site-specific sculptures while squatting in Allen Ginsberg’s derelict East Village apartment in 2006. The space was haunted—saturated with stories of the mid-century cultural luminaries who had passed time within those walls. Through research and experimentation in the environment, I created a sculptural installation and a collaborative performance work, Pull My Daisy, inspired the 1953 film by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, and the residual memory of Ginsberg and his Beat Generation cohort inscribed within the crumbling lathe of the home.
In 2010, I began a project in dialogue with “Little Syria”, the lower-Manhattan Arabic enclave displaced in the 1940’s by one of Robert Moses’ urban renewal projects. Over several years, I explored the site of NYC’s original Syrian Quarter for signs of its former identity, worked with preservationist groups to save the three buildings that remain from that time, documented an archive of Little Syria objects, and created a number of animated works in conversation with this history, through the lens of my relative Ameen Rihani’s 1911 proto-Orientalist novel, Book of Khalid.
I presented several versions of the Little Syria Archive, which was a sculptural installation of Little Syria artifacts and the speculative reimagining of its history through a stereoscopic 3D animation transcribing Book of Khalid. The Archive lived in various forms at the Queens Museum from 2014-2016. In 2015, commissioned by the Armory Show, I organized a Little Syria Parade, part participatory performance and part historical walking tour of the former neighborhood. Participants wore large cutouts of iconic NYC buildings, a jostling cityscape that thematized the continual shift of the urban landscape.
The birth of my daughter in 2016 and the pandemic turned my attention to my immediate surroundings. Recent sculptures and animations attempt to capture the slow time of
infant care and pandemic lockdown. Sculptures from this period reshape the domestic interiors of Brooklyn apartments into spirits of protection or torment, as they absorb the emotional charge that our little family generates. The animation, Kitchen Garden, recounts our efforts to cultivate a vegetable garden in the early months of the 2020 pandemic. The animation was created with 3D software using only photos derived from our immediate environment as textures in a claustrophobic CG environment that was meant to capture the anxieties of 2020.
My most recent work, SpoLiGo-Type Array (2023), combines a two-channel video and a sculptural screen into the representation of a human body through the abstract idiom of medical visualizations. Named after one of techniques involved in gene editing, this work is also meant to illicit the human microbiome, imagining human identity as a non-monolithic ecosystem in which various interests collaborate and compete.
Contact: info@brianzegeer.com
CV
Brian Zegeer
Education
2010 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
2005 MFA University of Pennsylvania
2001 BFA University of NC Greensboro
Selected Exhibitions / Screenings
CV 2023
2023
GUI/Gooey, curated by Laura Splan, https://www.plexusprojects.org/gui-gooey
2022
Real Realism, curated by Laura Horn, Spring / Break Art Show, NYC
Our Daily Dread, group exhibition, Bridge and Tunnel Gallery, Brooklyn
2021
Endless State, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, https://www.endlessstate.work/
The Time Being, Tussle Projects, https://www.tusslemagazine.com/the-time-being
2020
Roadside Picnic: Brian Zegeer and Naomi Nakazato, two-person exhibition, Field Projects
A Sphinx: On the Hwang-Zegeer Macrobiome, wall installation, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn
Death Cafe: Hotpot Edition, Companion Video in collaboration with Heidi Lau, BRIC Media
Friendly Ghost, curated by Juiceboxx Projects, Miriam Gallery
2019
Billboard Commission, SaveArtSpace, Brooklyn
The Spectral Within, 5-50 Gallery, NY
Domestic Ecologies, Mitte Project Space, NY
2018
Faculty Exhibition, Marymount Manhattan College
2017
Near & Dear, Curated by Carrie Moyer, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts , NY
Little Gods, mixed-media performance with Baby Copperhead, I-Beam, NY
2016
The Flat Files: Year 4, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, NY
Threaded Archetypes, NARS Foundation, NY
2015
The Museum Imagined, Curated by Lilly Wei, Danese/Corey Gallery, NY
World is New, Curated by Yin Ho and Andrew Prayzner , Space Available, NY
Artist in the Marketplace Biennial, Bronx Museum of Art, NY
Studio Program Exhibition, Queens Museum, NY
Little Syria Parade, Commissioned by Edge of Arabia for the 2015 Armory Show, NY
2014
Good Job, Everybody, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, NY
2013
Scene:Brooklyn Film Festival, Group Screening, Union Docs, NY
do it (outside), Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Performance, Socrates Sculpture Park, NY
2012
In Search of… ,Traveling Group show, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KA
Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle, Museum Biennial, Queens Museum, NY
2011
Gameshow, Group show, Florida International University, Miami, Fl
Into the Woods, Video Screening, Regina Rex, Queens, NY
Shellgame, Two-Person Exhibition with Caleb Nussear, Local Project, Queens, NY
Futuro Perfecto, Group Exhibition, Curated by Anthony Allen and Katayoun Vaziri, Zora Space, Brooklyn, NY
ESP TV Episode #1, Group Screening, Louis V. ESP Gallery and Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Brooklyn
2010
Compostion/Entropy, Two-Person Exhibition with Antonio Serna, Vizkult / Transiant Exhibition, Bucharest, Romania
Drawing Blood, Group Exhibition, curated by Kathleen Smith, Work Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Meteor in the Mirror Cloud, Three-Person Exhibition with Caleb Nussear and Elizabeth Cooper, St. Cecilia’s Convent, Brooklyn, NY
Geometry and Gesture, Group Exhibition, Elga Wimmer Gallery, NY
Moving Paper, Group Exhibition, Museum of Art and Design, NY
2009
Will It Happen?, Group Exhibition, Elga Wimmer Gallery, NY
2008
Kraj Majales, Solo Exhibition, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
Avatar Atavistic, Group Exhibition, curated by Andrew Prayzner, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
SLIDE RULZ II: $$$, Group Screening , curated by Tova Carlin, Monkeytown, Brooklyn, NY
Filmideo, Group Screening, Red Saw Gallery, Newark, NJ
In Praise of Apathy!, 2008, Two-Person Exhibition with Matt Neff, Bebe Benoliel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Natural Selection, Group Exhibittion, Maryland Art Place , Baltimore, MA
Starting From Goo, 2008, Group Exhibition, Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
2007
Contemporary Videos, Group Screening, Curated by Delmira Valladares, Jersey City Museum , Jersey City
SLIDE RULZ 1: BRING HOME THE BACON, Group Screening , curated by Tova Carlin, Monkeytown, Brooklyn, NY
23 Degrees, Group Exhibition, Icebox Project Space , Philadelphia, PA
Fever Pitch, Group Exhibition, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
2005
Voxenniel, Group Exhibition, Vox Populi Galley, Philadelphia, PA
Professional Experience
2016
Panel Discussion Moderator, “Underserving Syria”, Queens Museum
2015
Assistant Professor, Marrymount Manhattan College, 2015-Present
2013
Co-Host, Segment Producer, I Ran into Iran, Creative Time Reports/ Six Pillars to Persia September 2013 – 2015 , NY, London
2012
Assistant Professor, Laguardia Community College, 2012-Present
2009
Curator, VideoVaudeville, video art series for Manhattan Neighborhood Network, 2009-2010, NY
2008
Co-creator, performer, Pull My Daisy, Collaborative Animation and Sound performance series with Baby Copperhead, 2008-present, NY, touring
Art Critic, Timeout NY, 2008-2009
2007
Co-founder, Co-director, Vaudeville Park, Performance and Exhibition space , 2007-2012 , Brooklyn, NY
Panelist, Re-inventing the Miniature | School of Visual Arts | 2007 | NY, NY
Instructor, University of Pennsylvania, 2005
Residencies and Awards
2016
BRIC Arts Media Fellowship
2015
Best Video Art Production, 3rd i Awards, Alwans for the Arts
2014
Queens Museum Artist-in-Residence , Queens, NY, 2014 – 2016
Artist in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of Arts, Bronx, NY
2013
Flockhouse Resident, NY
2010
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine
2008
Center For Emerging Visual Artists Travel Grant, Philadelphia
2005
University of Pennsylvania Teaching Fellowship, Philadelphia
2004
Vermont Student Center Fellowship, Johnson, VT
Publications:
“Tradition and Transgression at SPRING/BREAK 2022” by William Corwin, https://www.arcadeprojectzine.com/features/spring-break-2022
“Forgivable Lies, Three Painters Keep You Guessing”, Hyperallergic, November 11, 2021
https://hyperallergic.com/691513/confabulation-empty-set-gallery-review/
“Brian Zegeer: Porous Identities”, Interview with Etty Yaniv, Artspiel, April 5, 2021, https://artspiel.org/brian-zegeer-porous-identities/
“Death Cafe:Hotpot Edition”, Editor’s Pick, Artnet, April 7, 2020, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/editors-picks-april-27-2020-1840047
“Near & Dear”, Artforum Critics’ Picks, October 2017
https://www.artforum.com/picks/near-dear-71471
“Queens Museum Studio Program”, Interview, Queens Museum, 2016