Zach Meisner’s curio-sized sculptural relief paintings tend to be as volumetric as they are planar, geometric as they are biomorphic, and playful as they are constructivist. It is impossible to refer to these works by name, since they are neither titled, nor numbered, nor does the artist categorize them into series. In order to speak of individual works one must attempt to describe them, a task made difficult by their off-hue color palette and their unrecognizable forms.
Light conditions and viewing angles too affect the apparent form and structure of these works. A hollow skin-and-armature construction might appear at first glance to be a solid volume in resin or wood, its translucent acrylic surface appearing alternatingly opaque and transparent. Crafting related forms in solid blocks of walnut, oak, butternut, poplar, and pine, Meisner thoughtfully destabilizes viewers’ assumptions about the relationships between surface and volume, between appearance and substance.
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