About the Exhibition
The inaugural exhibition in this series, “Settling Dust” presents an evolving visual dialog between Zoë Zimmerman’s evocative still life photographic works and Julie Lake’s intricately crafted stainless steel and ceramic sculptures.
Each "Chapter" of the series will feature a thoughtfully curated collection of Zimmerman’s photographs, including many from her prolific Pandemic Still Lifes series, displayed alongside Lake’s sculptural pieces. This co-exhibition will offer viewers a fresh context for the artists’ individual works while fostering dialogue about the complementary and contrasting elements evident in each artist’s approach, technique, and medium.
Furthermore, the exhibition provides a platform for mutual influence between the artists. As Lake's sculptures and Zimmerman's photographs interact within the gallery space, each artist's work will inform and cross-pollinate with the other, shaping content for the subsequent shows in the series.
About Zoë Zimmerman
"The stories that make up my life are distracting; too many words. The visual work I produce is an attempt to relinquish the relentlessly novelesque nature of this particular life to the forgiving ambiguity of poetry. I tell a story by letting go of the storyline and focusing on one moment of understanding or revelation, reducing my verbose inclinations to one or two words. Or a picture, in fact. Words can be defined, can be definitive, can be 'the last word' on a subject but imagery leaves more room for a change of interpretation. And change is the only certainty."
Regarding COVID Vanitas: The Pandemic Still Lifes: The technical aspect of the work utilizes what Zimmerman refers to as “pre-photographic seeing”. In observing why this series of still lifes harkens to Flemish Masters paintings, it is specifically due to optimal depth of field, in which the foreground, middle ground and background are handled with equal definition and sharpness. This is in contrast to “photographic seeing”, where only the foreground or a single subject is in sharp focus while the background is blurred. By utilizing pre-photographic seeing, every element in Zimmerman’s work receives the same focal attention, whether it be a flower’s bloom or the dust on a cloth, and although the images are created with contemporary equipment, the photographs reference painting of another era.
Zimmerman grew up in Taos and studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work is widely shown and collected both nationally and internationally and is included in many public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Harwood Museum, The Museum of New Mexico, The Harry Ransom Center for the Humanities,The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and others.
About Julie Lake
“My primary body of work is fabricated from fine gauge stainless steel, a specific material which I’ve been exploring for over 20 years. The nature of this metal allows me to create deceptively strong, yet visually fragile and complex forms with very small diameter wires. I use an arc welding process at precise settings to join the metal, melting and fusing it together at the tiny joints. Although the welding of steel is typically considered industrial, I liken my process to the domestic act of sewing... methodically stitching together the threads of metal to create form.”
In 2020, Lake began studying and incorporating ceramics into her practice, which lends a visually grounding element to some of her stainless steel pieces.
Lake has been a Taos resident for the last two decades. She studied at the Oregon College of Art and Craft and the University of Oregon. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR and has shown at the Harwood Museum of Art, Milan Design Week in Italy and the Sieraad Contemporary Jewellery Exhibition in Amsterdam, NL. She owns and operates Lake Object, which opened in 2023.
Additional Information
Settling Dust, Chapter Two opens July 19th
Settling Dust, Chapter Three opens mid-September