{"id":42698,"date":"2019-02-21T13:42:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T19:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=42698"},"modified":"2023-11-13T13:57:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:57:37","slug":"zachary-proctor-exits-the-wormhole-with-a-bouquet-of-enigmatic-narratives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/zachary-proctor-exits-the-wormhole-with-a-bouquet-of-enigmatic-narratives\/","title":{"rendered":"Zachary Proctor Exits the Wormhole With a Bouquet of Enigmatic Narratives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“And Yet They Had Hope,” oil on canvas, 42″ x 42″<\/p><\/div>\n

Planning is useful. It provides structure, focuses energy. But, as Zachary Proctor\u2019s new works at Park City\u2019s Terzian Galleries attest, getting lost in the work has its advantages as well. In Destinations Unknown,<\/em> Proctor is exhibiting with longtime friend and past exhibition partner Lane Bennion. The pair usually organize a show around a common theme. \u201cThis time we wanted to start paintings and not know where they would end,\u201d says Proctor. Gallery owner Karen Terzian approved, so they\u2019ve been spending the past five months \u201cfinding our way down wormholes we didn’t expect.\u201d Proctor\u2019s results are some of his most surreal images to date, works that are dark, funny, unsettling \u2014 sometimes all in the same canvas.<\/h4>\n

Proctor frequently employs nostalgic reference materials in his work, mining images a generation or more removed from his own. Recently, these were mid-20th-century racing cars and motorcycles, like the old Formula One that crashes into a wood fence in a work that appeared at Finch Lane\u2019s Square One<\/em> exhibit last year. There was usually a narrative quality to these works \u2014 whether they depicted a dramatic crash\u00a0or the moments before and after a race \u2014 but in Proctor\u2019s most recent works the narrative qualities have intensified while also becoming more enigmatic. This may have something to do with his working process, where he collages together various images to create a painting. \u201cAn idea will spark in my head, then I’ll start the painting,\u201d he says. \u201cBut a missing puzzle piece shows up and I’ll have to reflect on where to find it or just let time pass until it reveals itself.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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“Crisis Averted … For Now,” oil on canvas, 40″ x 30″<\/p><\/div>\n

In \u201cCrisis Averted … For Now\u201d a man in the sort of jetpack our grandparents thought we might be using to avoid traffic in the future is seen hovering above a house where a shark is diving into its roof. It has the deadpan, surreal quality of Rene Magritte\u2019s paintings. \u201cI had stumbled on to an old image of a man flying in a makeshift jetpack,\u201d Proctor says. \u201cI liked what he was trying to do, but I needed to find a context for his efforts.\u201d He came across the shark image, but didn\u2019t like the house \u2014 the perspective was wrong \u2014 so he found another.\u00a0 \u201cIn that process, the subject and the concept evolved and told me what the painting was communicating and I had to respond.\u201d<\/h4>\n

A shark appears in another, more unsettling work. Two children are depicted in the open ocean, their rowboat tipping, the girl\u2019s right leg already submerged in water, the boy leaping (or falling \u2014\u00a0 it\u2019s unclear which) into the depths. Beneath awaits a large Great White, its jaws ominously agape. With its resonances of heartwarming stories of faith and resilience, the title, \u201cAnd Yet They Had Hope,\u201d makes the image both less disturbing and more.<\/h4>\n

Proctor says he finds his titles as the paintings evolve, using a variety of sources, from the music and audiobooks he listens to in the studio to books of poetry and scripture.\u00a0 \u201cI keep a small sketchbook in my pocket and write interesting things down when I hear them.\u201d The common design guideline for photographers provides the title for \u201cBy the Rule of Thirds,\u201d a composition full of triplets: birds, drinks, card players, vehicles. \u201cThis painting started because people would talk to me about paintings of \u2018card players,\u2019\u201d Proctor says. Not the famous ones by Cezanne or Caravaggio, but their kitsch progeny \u2014\u00a0 \u201csome joked about paintings of dogs playing cards, others showed me paintings of the presidents playing cards. I just kept adding things that felt like a car crash of clich\u00e9s.\u201d<\/h4>\n

If you find yourself taking a while to decide what each painting is saying, know that the process of their creation can be equally difficult.\u00a0 \u201cThe only problem with [my] process,\u201d Proctor says, \u201cis that it takes a lot of time and paintings sit around for a while working themselves out. It’s sort of like waiting for flowers to bloom.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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“By the Rule of Thirds,” oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″<\/p><\/div>\n

Destinations Unknown: Lane Bennion and Zachary Proctor,<\/em> Terzian Galleries, Park City, through March 10, artists\u2019 reception Friday, February 22, during Gallery Stroll from 6-9 p.m. with music by Faux Jazz Trio.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Planning is useful. It provides structure, focuses energy. But, as Zachary Proctor\u2019s new works at Park City\u2019s Terzian Galleries attest, getting lost in the work has its advantages as well. In Destinations Unknown, Proctor is exhibiting with longtime friend and past exhibition partner Lane Bennion. The pair usually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[3368,3345],"class_list":["post-42698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-terzian-gallery","tag-zachary-proctor"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-15 22:03:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/By-the-Rule-of-Thirds-email-copy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42698"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70764,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42698\/revisions\/70764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}