Zachary Leener

Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

EDUCATION
2012 MFA, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, US
2007 Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles, CA
2003 BFA, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, US
2002 Center for Art and Culture, Institute for American Universities, Aix-en-Provence, FR
Since gaining an MFA from the University of California Riverside, Leener has employed etching and ceramics as his primary mediums. Largely due to his use of color, Zachary's clay formations are reminiscent of childhood playthings, comparing (or clashing) with biomorphic structures in an unsettling manner, begging comparison to Robert Gober. His etchings provoke a similar discomfort. Spatially, they are figurative; buildings, rooms, and landscapes in familiar perspectives. Leener populates these spaces with body-like, bulbous characters in the middle of their day-to-day negotiations. Ranging from beds and pipes, to hair and dysmorphic cross-sectioned bodies, the presence of a body is always felt. Whether “it” is growing, dying, feeding, performing, or suffering is never quite clear, but the bodily presence is always felt. Leener is, in the words of the New York Times “a worthy heir to the tradition of West Coast Funk”.
Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
What Wind, New York
February 05 - March 02, 2019


SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2015
Zachary Leener, Tif Sigfrids, at Frieze NY, Frame Section, New York, US
Yet to be titled, Lisa Cooley New York, US

2014
Zachary Leener, Tif Sigfrids, Los Angeles, US

2013
Up on the sun, Tif’s desk at Thomas Solomon Gallery, Los Angeles, US

2012
Meet me by the thing @ thing o’clock, Sweeney Gallery at Culver Center, Riverside, US
Herald St, ABC Berlin, Berlin, DE


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
What Wind, curated by Eric Palgon, Ceysson & Bénétière, New York, US

2015
Jeremy DePrez, Jonthan Lasker, Zachary Leener, Retrospective, Hudson, US
Surrealism Goes Bananas, Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels, BE
Proper Nouns, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, US
The Curve, Wallspace, New York, US

2014
The Possible, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, US

2012
Layaway, Young Art, Los Angeles, US
Cosmo, Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York, US
Paul Clay, Salon 94, New York, US

2010
Creative: Eric Palgon & Zachary Leener, Ridgewood Residency, Ridgewood, US

2007
Tropical Hot Dog Night/Buckets of Ice, Co-Lab, Copenhagen, DK