ILANA ZWESCHI | LOOK UPON THIS BODY AS A MACHINE
They are You, oil on canvas, 36 x 70 inches
Foster/White is pleased to announce Ilana Zweschi's second solo exhibition with the gallery. Zweschi is recognized for her use of mathematical algorithms to create her vibrant, abstract paintings. In this series of work, she returns to the representational, incorporating organic imagery to reference the algorithms commonly found in the natural world.
The title of the exhibition, Look Upon This Body As A Machine, takes inspiration from Zweschi's largest painting to date, as well as an accompanying interview with Seattle art critic and writer T.s. Flock. A link to view the interview is available below.
Depopulation I, oil on canvas, 60 x 40 inches
Through handwritten algorithms, I connect a painted visual language with the direct language of a text document. One letter equates to one brushstroke, directing its color and quantity, while an underlying "seed image" guides the algorithm toward organic shapes. Different zones across the canvas follow different rules, creating a dynamic composition.
For this series, I introduced a new seed image source: a children's drawing toy running on a simple computer program, capable of drawing one of 100 preloaded images by sliding in a card. I directed a random number generator to choose which card the toy would draw as well as its placement on a grid corresponding to the painting. These marks influenced the large shapes and random deviations in otherwise predictable lines.
The texts I work from are official documents — societal relics that trace a link between objectification and violence — and the paintings accumulate their language stroke by stroke.
The flowers conceptually connect the ideas in the text to the use of algorithms. Realistically rendered and planted within the otherwise abstract and repetitive marks, they hold visual weight. They quietly remind us that algorithms exist in nature and that our divide between nature and culture is a false one. When we relate to nature as a machine to be used, a resource to be extracted, we extend the same objectifying logic that drives violence against bodies to the entire ecosystem. — Ilana Zweschi
live! live! living!, oil on canvas, 40 x 70 inches
Zweschi attended Skidmore College, graduating summa cum laude in 2011 with an Art Major and a Mathematics Minor. In 2014, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the State University of New York at Albany. Zweschi has exhibited expansively, recently completing a large-scale commission for the Facebook Open Arts Program. She is part of the Microsoft and SeaTac art collections, and received the DASH artist grant for 2022.