Andrew Zarou

flotilla (19), 2012. 10" x 10". graphite, paper + vellum collage on paper. Courtesy of Andrew Zarou.

meditational flaws, 2012. 19" x 19". graphite on spray-painted paper. Courtesy of Andrew Zarou.

flotilla (32), 2012. 18" x 18". graphite, paper + spray-painted paper on paper. Courtesy of Andrew Zarou.

meditational flaws (31), 2012. 19" x 19". graphite + spray paint on paper. Courtesy of Andrew Zarou.

flotilla (24), 2012. 10" x 10". graphite, paper + spray-painted paper collage on paper. Courtesy of Andrew Zarou.

Another favorite artist from this past weekend's Bushwick Open Studios was Andrew Zarou, who's work in currently on display at Robert Henry Contemporary (through July 1). Although his geometric works on paper couldn't be further from that of Seung Mo Park's intricate sculptures, they possess a beauty and polish that to which I found myself particularly drawn. According to his personal statement:

I see my studio practice as a balancing act between the physical manifestations of my core tendencies (repetition) and the spontaneous impulse for change (difference). Like the difference between climate and weather: climate being understood as the long-term trajectory of meteorological conditions, and weather as conditions of the immediate present, repetition and difference live inside and move around each other in my work.

Always striving for consistency, but rarely working serially, my typical approach has been to engage and resolve each piece individually. This generous and open-ended attitude has engendered a body of work that could be interpreted at face value as disparate and unrelated, but the central and foundational motivations that drive the work: the impulses to collect, organize, and build have remained in tact for years.

Zarou describes his work as relating to weather patterns, and I love how expressive each work feels, even within the confines of line and shape that he sets for himself.