Zachary Lank

Zachary Lank’s “Cultivators” is an extension of his most recent series of paintings exploring themes of ecology and human folly. Of the work, Lank says: “The idea was to make something about toil and best intentions; about unintended consequences but also of doing the only thing you know how to at the time. The characters, dressed almost in baptismal gowns, and the cruciform tree, point towards the biblical allusions of Eden, innocence and the fruit of knowledge. They are uprooting this strange tree and replacing it with something just as odd; it’s sympathetic while acknowledging the comedy and foolishness of the whole affair. The painting is in conversation with the work of Stanley Spencer who engaged with biblical themes, but this work comes from a more ambiguous position on faith”. 

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Zachary Lank (b. 1989) received his MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art in Manhattan, and his BFA from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. He has exhibited across the country from Hawaii to New York, including his curatorial debut at 2021’s SPRING/BREAK Art Fair. Currently residing in Brooklyn NY with his fiancé, he enjoys hiking and rafting, and longs for the day when he can have a garden of his own.