Neil Zakiewicz
Neil Zakiewicz’s work utilises modern materials alongside traditional sculpture techniques, deliberately mixing high-art pomp, vernacular utilitarian objects and hobbyist craft skills. He aims for purposeful wrongness, in sense of scale and mismatching materials, and disregards etiquette and deference to historical styles. He plays with the artistic conventions used to signify veneration and grandeur in the display of art, and the difficult point at which art descends to commonplace tools or mere matter. Closely connected is the status of the artist as venerated outsider, with all the clichés attached to this, which he references thematically in sculpture and recent screen prints. Since graduating from Goldsmiths College in 2003 with an MA in Fine Art, Neil has worked both as an artist and curator. He has exhibited internationally, and he lives and works in London. Neil has had the following solo exhibitions: Fruits of the Palate at Gone Tomorrow Gallery, London; Monumental at Bearspace, London; Blind Data at Unit, London Recent group exhibitions include: Pastiche, Solyst, Denmark; If I Was A Sculptor (But Then Again No), Bearspace, London; Eau Savage and Beauty and the Beast, Fieldgate Gallery, London; Spain in Pain, Liquidacion Total, Madrid, Spain; Zoo Art Fair, London; Yabadabadoo!, and Bag Lady and Hard Labour, Cell, London; Post Notes, ICA, London; and Vanity to XXX, Samsung Institute of Art and Design, Seoul, Korea.
