Artists - CVZ Contemporary

Zachary Yorke attended Amherst College in Massachusetts where he studied literature, Cultural Anthropology and Fine Arts. In 2003, he was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Research Fellowship that took him on a yearlong investigation of contemporary art in South Africa. During this period he published a wide variety of writings, including social commentary, exhibition reviews and long essays. He completed a Masters Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania that focused on Film and Time-Based Media. Most recently, he was awarded a 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholarship to South Africa.

My video work uses visual symbols and allegories to evoke cyclical aspects of everyday encounters and to examine how those encounters affect the interior life.

My early paintings, monotypes and drawings introduced allegorical components into self-portraiture as a way of linking personal concerns to larger narratives. Exploring characteristics of Formalist and Romantic traditions has led me to use text and repetition to articulate semi-autobiographical narratives. My formal concerns relate to creating patterns in time by controlling when and how things appear and disappear in the frame. Romanticism often guides my subject matter choices, leading me to topics such as fear, compassion, violence and quest. Influenced by artists such as Jesper Just, Catherine Sullivan, Jørgen Leth, Stan Douglas, and James Lee, I compose deadpan acting and melodramatic action from a distance, through an empathetic lens.

Building allegories that allude to psychic interiors has meant creating gestures and scenarios that speak for their internal counterparts. Isolating emblems of sentiment, I compose the geometry of the frame to give the images connotations. I contextualize the emblems within the story and I develop characters to serve the allegory's generalizations about human interdependence. This idealized, heroic and sensual subject matter constitutes the surface of my underlying faith in rigorous contemporary treatments of sentiment.

EDUCATION

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
MFA Degree and Time-based Media Certificate / expected May 2006

Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts, Summa Cum Laude / May 2003
Course work included Economics, History, and Cultural Anthropology

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA / 2004-Present
Teaching Assistant. Worked together with teachers in two drawing classes and a Senior
Seminar. Supervised senior thesis projects and provided individual instruction to students.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA / Summer 2005
Teacher. Constructed a curriculum and daily lesson plans for a drawing course.
Designed still life, landscape, self-portrait and live model projects to develop students'
perceptual skills. Provided critical feedback and led critiques.

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

J. William Fulbright Award, South Africa / 2006-2007
Selected to conduct research to increase mutual understanding through cultural exchange.

Angelo Savelli Award, Philadelphia, PA / 2006
Awarded to an MFA student for outstanding performance in any medium.

Samuel S. Fels Grant, Philadelphia, PA / 2005
Created a short documentary about a non-profit organization in West Philadelphia that
enlists children in a struggle to push out the drugs and violence that threaten to cripple their community.

Neil Welliver Award, Philadelphia, PA / 2005
Awarded to an MFA student for outstanding performance in any medium.

Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, South Africa and Australia / 2003-2004
Conducted a yearlong independent research project focusing on the intersection of
politics and contemporary art in South Africa. Published fourteen articles in five different
publications.

The Wise Fine Arts Award, Amherst, MA / May 2003
Awarded to an exceptional artwork created for the Senior Honors Thesis. The artwork is acquired by the Trustees of Amherst College.

Amherst College Fine Arts Fellowship, Topeka, KS / Summer 2002
Created a series of paintings that sought to address the historical irony of racial
segregation in Topeka, Kansas.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Show Me Where the Devil Bit You, Tower Galleries, Philadelphia, PA / February 2006

2005 MFA Biennial Exhibition
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE / April 2005

Emerging Artists, CVZContemporary Gallery, New York, NY / December 2004

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Black Studies Department, Amherst College, Amherst, MA