Zachary Wollard
REMOTE VIEWING
September 4 through October 4, 2025
Opening Reception
Wednesday, September 3, from 6–8 pm
Gallery hours:
Thursday–Saturday, 12–6 PM.
Location
53 Stanton Street
New York, NY 10002
608.556.4763
Press Release
JJ MURPHY GALLERY is excited to present “Remote Viewing,” a solo exhibition of recent paintings and sculptures by Zachary Wollard, opening Wednesday, September 3, from 6 to 8 PM. The show runs from September 4 to October 4, 2025. Gallery hours are Thursday–Saturday, 12–6 PM.
Zachary Wollard’s early paintings were described by Roberta Smith in the New York Times as a “bricolage approach to abstract and/or representational painting,” whose “ancestry can be traced to Sigmar Polke and David Salle.” But Wollard, a poet turned painter, might be described as being more influenced by the New York School of Poets, which included such luminaries as Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, and Kenneth Koch and Ron Padgett, with whom Wollard studied at Columbia. This renowned group of avant-garde poets was known for their connection to visual art and for juxtaposing seemingly unrelated elements. In this vein, Wollard’s initial approach related to cut-up and collage.
Wollard’s new work is more overtly narrative, yet his process for generating the visual imagery in his paintings remains unorthodox. He does not make preliminary sketches, nor is the work predetermined. It instead involves what Wollard terms “projective imagination.” The paintings begin with several layers of thin, transparent acrylic paint. The ensuing shapes that result from the chance technique suggest the figurative elements that slowly begin to emerge. Wollard does not have a specific narrative in mind but rather lets the painting determine its direction.
Despite a more experimental approach, Wollard’s new paintings have a narrative coherence. His largest painting, “Call Yr Mom” (2025), reflects the combination of camaraderie and alienation typically found in a nightclub, as a woman in the foreground waves to a friend who seems hesitant to enter the intimidating space. Wollard’s figures have elongated bodies and dour expressions. They wear highly patterned clothes. Largely self-taught as a painter, he distorts the proportions of both people and objects, such as the bottles and glasses on the bar.
In “The After Hold” (2024), a group of young people gather to hold a ceremony for a beached whale, yet they seem isolated from one another and fail to make eye contact. One pours a can of water on it; a small bouquet of flowers sticks out in its blowhole. Even when Wollard’s figures embrace, as in “Hour of Parting” (2025), there is a profound sense of melancholy. What event has occurred that causes them to clutch each other so tightly? One cannot help but notice that the young child, despite participating in the group hug, appears distracted by something outside the frame. For Wollard, the tension lies in the relationships; the narrative itself is always open and full of ambiguity.
Zachary Wollard has had solo exhibitions at Massimo Audiello Gallery, NYC, as well as in Munich, Madrid, and Los Angeles. His group shows include Stefan Stux Gallery and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York City, and Kavi Gupta, Chicago. Wollard’s work has been reviewed in the New York Times and Artforum and is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. He was awarded a Sharpe-Walentas Studio Residency in 2015. Wollard received a BA from Columbia University and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Bradford, VT..