Zak prekop bio

Zak Prekop (b.
Zak Prekop (b.
BIO: Zak Prekop was born in 1979.

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The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

June 8, 2025 to January 4, 2026 | Balcony Gallery, South Gallery

Zak Prekop: Durations

Zak Prekop's practice focuses on bold abstract compositions and the materiality of paint. For more than two decades, he has explored painting's ability to compress time by developing compositional strategies that balance spontaneity with meticulous, decisive mark-making. His works collapse multiple interpretations—such as the impulsive, expressive nature of action painting and the precise, optical effects of hard edge geometric compositions—creating an awareness of time as viewers decipher the artist’s actions.

For this exhibition, Prekop presents thirteen paintings in the Museum’s Balcony and South galleries, all executed by the artist in the year leading up to the exhibition. His layered compositions evoke cartographic and geological forms, references that are characterized by an almost incomprehensible accumulation of time.

Speaking about his own work, Prekop explains, “I refer to my paintings as measures of time. They measure the labor involved,

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Zak Prekop combines deft brushstrokes with subtle use of color to create carefully balanced abstract compositions. He frequently employs underlying structures in his paintings that he builds upon with freeform and premeditated textures. Prekop’s work has an improvisational look, but closer observation reveals the careful consideration of every element.

BIO:

Zak Prekop was born in 1979. He studied at: Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt, Germany; School of the Art at the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois; and School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Prekop’s work has been exhibited at: Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota; MoMA PS1 in New York City; the Cluj Museum in Romania; the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Maxwell Graham/Essex Street in New YorkCity; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; and Hagiwara Projects in Tokyo, Japan; among others.

Hassla Books published a book of Prekop’s work in 2018.

Prekop lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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ZAK PREKOP

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ZAK PREKOP

(b. 1979, lives in Brooklyn, NY)

EDUCATION

2009 Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany

2008 MFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2001 BFA, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018 Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo, Japan

ESSEX STREET, New York, NY

2016 Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL

2015 Thomas Duncan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

ESSEX STREET, New York, NY

2014 Galería Augustina Ferreyra, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL

Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo, Japan

2012 Thomas Duncan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Art Statements, Basel, Switzerland (with Harris Lieberman)

Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York, NY

2011 Shane Campbell Gallery