Alex Zak

Alex Zak makes work that explores the flattening of culture in tourist imaginaries. Zak is from coastal Florida where they gained a familiarity to the labor and consumption that occurs within leisure economies. Using a wide variety of materials—such as found objects, sand, textiles, clay and wood, among others—they rework images and symbols informed by the desire and decadence of such locations to explore history, culture, and labor that is obscured. In doing so, Zak builds and produces installations, sculptures, videos, and performances that reflect on the state of local ecologies and communities while interrogating the visual landscape of the spaces we often vacation to.

Zak Received both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and recently received their Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Yale School of Art. They have exhibited in Chicago, IL, New Haven, CT, New York, NY, Saint Petersburg and Tampa, FL and Varanasi, India.

Zak currently lives and works in Boston, MA and teaches at School of the Museum of Fine Art at Tufts University.