Currently, I have been creating paintings of fictitious landscapes. They are multi-perspective compositions of intersecting vignettes without inhabitants or objects. I prioritize an expanded middle ground, the space regularly shortened between the figure and a conclusive background. For me, these spaces, often overlooked, can describe feeling or emotion just as potent as those intended to be portrayed through an object or figure.
The American Regionalist artists, Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton depicted the natural landscape as a bent and tormented field that captured the uncertainty and volatility of its inhabitants. A post-industrial impending doom and forced perspectives. I draw maps and paint landscapes that have the movement of a carpet being rolled out before the viewer. An invitation, the carpet could be removed from underneath their feet at any moment. I intend for the viewers to have that same suspicion of the grounds I’m plotting out on the canvas. There is a potential of a false bottom or an underbelly untrustworthy. — Robert Zehnder
Zehnder’s work has been included in exhibitions at C L E A R I N G, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles; Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York; Mrs., Maspeth; Laura, and Jacket Contemporary, Chicago; Spider Gallery, Wichita; and the Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, among others. His first solo exhibition in Los Angeles was held in Spring of 2023 with C L E A R I N G. Zehnder’s work has been placed in the permanent collection of the ICA Miami; The Mint Museum, Charlotte; the Aïshti Foundation, Jal El Dib; as well as The Rachofsky Collection, Dallas; and the Morgan Stanley Art Collection, New York.
[excerpted from Mrs. Gallery website: www.mrsgallery.com]