Zach Eichleberger
Bio
In 2014 I successfully defended my thesis exhibition to the Visual Arts Department at Columbia University where I earned my Master of Fine Arts degree. From the numerous critiques with accomplished art professionals and peers, the program at Columbia has given me an excellent understanding of contemporary art issues as well as their historical antecedents. The main focus of my studio work and research involved discovering new supports and materials in painting with a combined conceptual approach inspired by a sojourn in India. While there, I stayed with ashrams in the north Himilayan foothills and then made my way to the southern state of Tamil Nadu where I stayed with the Ramana Ashram. Prior to my matriculation at Columbia, I enrolled in graduate studies with the Uninversity of Denver’s distance learning program in their Arts Program Management course. My research papers included an institutional critique of the Nam Jun Paik Art Center in Yongin, South Korea, an investigative look at the macabre in Andy Warhol and an exploration of the historical antecedents of a successful artist’s career. To this last, Katherine Giuffrie’s essay, “Sandpiles of Opportunity,” proved of particular interest in its assertion of art world realities where, “each actor’s attempts to reach the top change the shape of the climb.”
I taught ESL in South Korea for nine years, moving there in 2001 shortly after earning my BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute. In South Korea I volunteered as the Director of the Seoul Art Collective; an international group of artists working together to foster community and exhibit their work. For the SAC I arranged critique sessions, organized charity art auctions and curated group exhibitions. Much of this activity is documented under the “Articles and Reviews” section of my curriculum vitae on my website. My curatorial background also lead to a partnership with the Sumter County Gallery of Art, for which I organized a large-scale group exhibition of painters, scultpors and videogrpahers as well as securing a loan agreement with the Norman Rockwell Museum. The exhibition, titled Serious Fun, was a conceptual investigation into the current notions of play, humor and frivolty present in today’s art. I have also sought opportunities to write about art and contribute to public discourse with Art Lies Magazine, formerly based in Houston, Texas, and with the online journal, Arte Fuse, based in New York City. These are also linked in my curriculum vitae under “Bibliography” on my website Lastly, whether I’m building latrines in rural Ecuador to aid sanitation efforts, or organizing charity art auctions to benefit a children’s safe house my background is further distinguished by a dedication to service complementing my passion for education.
Grounded in expressive representation, my work as a professional artist is visually eclectic while being firmly rooted in the practice of drawing and painting. Much of my interest involves seeking new possibilities within the medium’s long history. Such an interest has lead me to work with various machianable, industrial supports such as polyester resins, Bondo, Aqua-Resin and Teflon from which multiple paintings can be deconstructed, reassembled and made anew. Most recently a return to traditional supports is present in my work where I’ve saught to combie my interest in myctism and spirituality with new provocations from theoretical and particle physics. These have most often manifested conceptually as imagined landscapes that mimic sound and light waves, and the transmutation of matter represented by burning cars, fire, smoke and atmosphere. The overall praxis is geared towards experimentation, allowing the work to dictate its terms while favoring the immediate, reactive and expressive potential of the moment.