WorkArt & Culture

Cosmic queries: Michael Zansky new artwork probes our place in creation

Born in The Bronx, New York in 1947, Michael Zansky has spent his life pursuing two parallel careers. One has been as a scene artist and production designer working on TV shows like The Sopranons and Law & Order: SVU, as well as films including The Fisher King, Donnie Brasco and Fatal Attraction. The other has been as a fine artist, which has seen his installation art, sculpture, painting and photography exhibited at galleries and museums around the world. And it's with this second hat on that he's recently completed Saturn Paintings.

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Artist Michael Zansky works on large carved and painted plywood panels for his Saturn Paintings installation, featuring abstract cosmic imagery in brown and white tones.

"Saturn Paintings refers to series of large, carved, and painted plywood panels," Zansky explains, "and is thus a particularly apt title for a series engaging with a cosmic scale which exceeds our comprehension and representation.

"As such, Saturn Paintings extends the artist’s concern with expressing the psychological and existential maladies of a modern age set adrift in seemingly boundless space and endless time, an age collectively grappling with questions about its significance in a universe whose secrets continue to elude us."

Carved and painted plywood panels from Michael Zansky's Saturn Paintings series showing abstracted human figures in sepia tones against a gridded background
Carved and painted plywood panels from Michael Zansky's Saturn Paintings series showing topographical relief detail in gold and cream tones
Carved and painted plywood panel from Michael Zansky's Saturn Paintings series depicting an elephant-headed figure in classical dress leaping over geometric forms
Carved and painted plywood panel from Michael Zansky's Saturn Paintings series showing an abstracted face with geometric patterns and linear marks in brown and cream tones
Michael Zansky's Saturn Paintings installation featuring carved and painted plywood panels with ink illustrations depicting mythological and cosmic imagery arranged on a gallery wall
Carved and painted plywood panel from Michael Zansky's Saturn Paintings series showing a profile head with circular patterns and scratched surface detail
Two large carved and painted plywood panels by Michael Zansky depicting abstract figures with cosmic imagery on white gallery walls
Three large carved and painted plywood panels from Michael Zansky's Saturn Paintings series featuring abstract creatures and forms in brown tones on white backgrounds
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