Allison Zuckerman is undoubtedly one of the most coveted artists working right now; like Artemisia Gentileschi or Frida Kahlo before her she is here to reconquer, reclaim and redefine what it means to be a woman through her canvases — a visceral, Feminist subversion of the traditional medium of painting. Equipped with a Boudiccan spirit and unabashedly anti-establishment, she seeks to take women from the echelons of the male-dominated art history canon and drag them into the 21^st Century, bestowing agency and authority to the once-subjugated. Zuckerman highlights the importance of such: ‘It is my goal to embolden my female figures to be active participants in their own representation.’ ⁱ.

 

A Generation-Defining Creative Spirit 

 

Zuckerman relays her artistic process akin to that of a DJ — sampling and remixing images with collage and her own painting to create works that are fresh, vivacious, and entirely singular works of art in the creation of her own alternative universe away from the chauvinism of the male gaze. However, these lofty ambitions and objectives are tempered by a sense of humour, which indeed holds fulcrum to the essence of her work, balancing the ‘low’ culture of the internet culture and the ‘high’ culture of Renaissance painting. ‘Work that is sad and funny is my favourite kind. Comedy as the flashy side of tragedy provides a mood for my making’, says the artist ⁱⁱ. The result? A postmodern wet dream, or in the words of the titan critic Jerry Saltz, ‘an orgy of art history’ ⁱⁱⁱ.

 

“I’m usually most excited about moments in the paintings that surprise me and transcend my own intentions. Sometimes it’s the way that a graphic element, like a solid circle, lays against a voluminous Cezanne inspired apple. In other instances, the rendered eyes directly painted on blue sunglasses do something uncanny while evoking sympathy.”
— Allison Zuckerman

 

Bullseye is no different, incorporating elements of Picasso’s Guernica (the lightbulb crowning the composition and the reclining/tortuous minotaur figure are instantly recognisable) with a splintering of pixelated squares, a captivating melange of tradition and modernity. This electrifying blend of painting and collage takes its roots from her years spent Chicago School of Art Institute while completing her MFA, where upon discovering collage and becoming enamoured with its immediacy she sought to create a disparate imagery that would create ‘unexpected psychological leaps and arrivals’ ⁱⁱ.

 

 

No Holds Barred Attitude to Succeed

 

“These paintings are like candy. We were almost embarrassed to love them because they’re so easy to like. But then when you dig into the work, and you spend time with Allison, you understand that it’s extremely sophisticated.”
— Esteemed American collector Don Rubell

 

Being a Millennial and thus the first generation of artists to grow up with Web2, Zuckerman is indebted to the internet age and culture, not only for providing a foundation for her intuitive tableaus, but also for propelling her career to stardom. Working as a gallery assistant in SoHo, she used photoshop in her spare time to recharge her old paintings. Frustrated by a lack of opportunities to show her work, she turned to her Instagram page in an inspired move to promote her paintings on her own grounds. What’s important to note that this was in 2016, long before it became an established norm for artists to upload their work onto their Instagram and allowing their virtual presence to function as an extension of themselves as a creative. Fortune favours the bold, and it didn’t take long for attention — and destiny — to come knocking. The dealer Marc Wehby, famed for his deft ability for uncovering fresh talent, sent her a DM and arranged a studio visit; a studio that measured one corner of her small apartment in Williamsburg. Instantly hooked, he booked in three of her works, standalone collages printed on thick aluminum boards, for his next group show. Soon after, following a chance encounter with the influential patrons and collectors Don and Mera Rubell, she was invited to become the artist in residence at their foundation, following in the footsteps of Lucy Dodd, Cy Gavin, Sônia Gomes, and most notably Oscar Murillo (the couple subsequently bought 22 of her works from her studio, and all those completed during her residency).

 

 

 

Collector’s Digest

 

Zuckerman’s acclamation has not been contained to the art world, and has crossed the boundary into music and fashion, with Creative Director of Moschino Jeremy Scott writing the foreword to her second museum solo show, Pirate and Muse, at the Akron Art Museum in 2018, and collaborating with Tods last year. She has also designed cover art for the pop superstar Charli XCX.

 

Since her first show with Kravets Whelby Gallery, she has held solo shows at Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel (2019); University Gallery, Gainesville (2019); and Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2017). She has been included in group exhibitions at Albertz Benda, New York (2020); Unit London (2019); Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York (2018); Pizzuti Collection, Columbus (2018); and Brand New Galery, Milan (2017).

 

Her work is held in the permanent collections of Marval Collection, Milan; and the Rubell Collection, Miami; Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art; Emergentes Art Foundation, Beirut & Zurich; and the Marval Collection, Berlin & Milan.

 

Zuckerman is part of an ongoing group exhibition at the Flint Institute of Art, Being Human: Contemporary Art from the Rubell Museum. She will be included in a forthcoming solo exhibition with Koenig Gallery, October 2022.

 

 

ⁱ Allison Zuckerman, quoted in Felicity Carter, ‘Allison Zuckerman Rewrites Art History To Reclaim Famous Females’, Forbes, 9 August 2018, online  

ⁱⁱ Allison Zuckerman, quoted in Emma O’Neill, ‘How to Make an Art Star. The Rise of Allison Zuckerman’, Vault Magazine, August 2018, online

ⁱⁱⁱ Jerry Saltz, quoted in Emma O’Neill, ‘How to Make an Art Star. The Rise of Allison Zuckerman’, Vault Magazine, August 2018, online