EMPTY VESSELAMIR ZAKI

TRAVELING EXHIBITION

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The skateparks are empty and the ceramics are broken. Zaki thus depicts both types of “vessels” as sculptural rather than functional, hence, the title: Empty Vessel.

Concrete Vessel 75. 2018. Archival pigment print. 60×75 inches.

Courtesy of the artist.Broken Vessel 104. 2018. Archival

pigment print. 48×60 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Concrete Vessel 2. 2018. Archival pigment print. 36×45 inches.

Courtesy of the artist.

Empty Vessel—Amir Zaki expands on Amir Zaki’s dedication to photographing built and natural landscapes. The exhibition presents selections from two new bodies of photographic images that create a tension between the fragility of broken ceramic vessels and the solidity of quintessential California concrete skateparks. Hung in proximity to one another, sometimes juxtaposed, the images generate a complex conversation around the notion of “emptiness.”

EMPTY VESSEL—AMIR ZAKI

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Nearly all previous exhibitions on skate subculture focus on the graphics, lifestyle, or the skateboarders themselves. Empty Vessel—Amir Zaki is unique: the first major exhibition to feature the unusual architecture of skateparks. From a fine arts perspective, Zaki’s work follows the lineage of the 1970s New Topographics photographers. Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal and others shifted landscape photography’s focus to the “man-altered landscape” and extended their explorations into the suburban and exurban settings of Southern California.

Concrete Vessel 107. 2018. Archival pigment print. 60×75 inches. Courtesy of the artist.Broken Vessel 79. 2018. Archival pigment print. 8×10 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Empty Vessel provides a platform for contemplating duality and the more ambiguous third space that exists between linked elements which cannot exist without each other: form and emptiness; function and aesthetics; holding and letting go; containing and emptying.

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ARTIST BIO Amir Zaki (b. 1974, Beaumont CA) is an artist living in Southern California, and Professor of Photography and Digital Technology at UCR. He received his MFA from UCLA in 1999 and has since been regularly exhibiting his work nationally and internationally. Solo shows include presentations at Edward Cella Gallery, MAK Center, ACME, Los Angeles and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, among others. Zaki is represented in major museum collections such as the Orange County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and is featured in the 2006 Phaidon Press anthology Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography.

Broken Vessel 29. 2018. Archival pigment print. 36×45 inches. Courtesy of the artist.Concrete Vessel 53. 2018. Archival pigment print. 60×75 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

“As someone who grew up skateboarding, I experience and understand these skateparks in an intense, sometimes painful, physical manner.” —Amir Zaki

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The exhibition is accompanied by Zaki’s first internationally distributed monograph, California Concrete: A Landscape of Skateparks, published by Merrell Publishers, with essays by the artist, famed skateboarder Tony Hawk, and Los Angeles-based architect Peter Zellner.

EXHIBITION MATERIALSExhibition checklisthttps://ucrarts.ucr.edu/Event/1501/files/Empty-Vessel-AmirZaki-Checklist_UCRARTS.pdf

Exhibition brochure https://ucrarts.ucr.edu/Event/1501/files/EmptyVessel-AmirZaki-Booklet_UCRARTS.pdf

Marketing, education and other interpretative materials: Provided digitally upon booking

Video: Short documentary by Aaron Khaw, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMthldDNcWw

Publication: California Concrete: A Landscape of Skateparks, published by Merrell Publishers, 2019. Available for purchase at http://www.merrellpublishers.com

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PRESSLA Times: Amir Zaki photographs California skateboard parks as Brutalist architecture, by Liesl Bradner, Sep. 21, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-09-20/amir-zaki-skateboard-park-photographs

NPR: ‘Exalting The Banal To The Monumental’ Through California Skate Parks, by Emma Bowman, Oct. 13, 2019. https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2019/10/13/755562623/exalting-the-banal-to-the-monumental-through-california-skate-parks

WIRED: You’ve Never Seen Skate Parks Like This Before, by Michael Hardy, Jul. 1, 2019. https://www.wired.com/story/skatepark-photo-gallery/

Wallpaper: Navigating California’s concrete skateparks through the lens of Amir Zaki, by Luke Hals, Aug. 21, 2019. https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/california-concrete-skateparks-photography-book-amir-zaki

Dezeen: California’s “elaborately designed” concrete skateparks captured by Amir Zaki, by Eleanor Gibson, Aug. 19, 2019. https://www.dezeen.com/2019/08/19/california-concrete-a-landscape-of-skateparks-amir-zaki-merrell/

The Architect's Newspaper: Amir Zaki explores broken space and empty skateparks in Empty Vessel, by Emily Conklin, Aug. 13, 2019. https://archpaper.com/2019/08/amir-zaki-broken-space-empty-skateparks-empty-vessel/#gallery-0-slide-0

KCET: The Skate Park as a Vessel to Contain Emptiness and the Imagination, by Tyler Stallings, Sep. 10, 2019. https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/the-skate-park-as-a-vessel-to-contain-emptiness-and-the-imagination

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“Using digital manipulation, nonhuman scale or horizonless perspectives, Zaki makes his built environments appear subtly irrational, made to be seen not experienced. He presents us with buildings that exist for themselves, not for us.” —Emily Conklin, The Architect's Newspaper

UCR News: “Empty Vessel” offers a rare insider’s view of California skateparks, by Jessica Weber, Feb. 14, 2020. https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2020/02/14/empty-vessel-offers-rare-insiders-view-california-skate-parks

Atlas Obscura: Capturing the Sculptural Landscapes of California Skateparks, by Winnie Lee, Dec. 16, 2019. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/photographs-california-skateparks

Irvine Weekly: Empty vessel exhibition highlights beauty and spirituality in the ordinary, by Liz Goldner, Nov. 7, 2019. https://irvineweekly.com/empty-vessel-exhibition-highlights-beauty-and-spirituality-in-the-ordinary/

KooZA/rch: Photographs as Experiences about Looking (interview with Amir Zaki), Oct. 7, 2019. https://www.koozarch.com/interviews/photographs-as-experiences-about-looking/

NUMBER OF WORKS 29 framed photographs 1 table with limited edition box 1 video (optional)

SPACE REQUIREMENTS Approximately 225 linear feet (flexible)Secured, climate controlled area

PARTICIPATION FEE $7,500

SHIPPING & INSURANCEExhibitors are responsible for fine arts shipping costs and wall-to-wall fine arts insurance

BOOKING PERIOD 12 weeks

TOUR PERIOD Flexible

CONTACTRita Sobreiro Souther UCR ARTS Exhibitions Manager rita.souther@ucr.edu 3824 Main Street Riverside, CA 92501 +951.827.4787 ucrarts.ucr.edu

EXHIBITION SPECIFICATIONS

Empty Vessel—Amir Zaki was originally organized by the Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion, Orange Coast College, and curated by Tyler Stallings, director at The Doyle. The exhibition tour is organized by UCR ARTS.