Lank Featured at Hawk Hive on Andes Community Day

ANDES — Opening to coincide with the Andes Community Day festivities on August 2nd, Hawk + Hive gallery hosted a solo exhibition of new paintings by Zachary Lank. Titled “Revenant Blues” it is the second solo show of the artist’s work at Hawk + Hive.

The series of oil paintings depicts figures in the landscape, with one key element missing: the figures themselves. Outfits traditionally associated with manly pursuits—hunting caps, plaid jackets, rugby jerseys, work gloves—float among pastoral scenes, alongside their accessories like shotguns, paper targets and packs of Lucky Strikes. They are striking images, in rich, warm colors; at once haunting and comic. 

Born in Maryland and now based in Brooklyn, Lank painted the works on display within the last 10 months, but it’s part of an artistic exploration that began several years earlier. On the origins of this painting cycle, the artist explained: “During the pandemic, my wife and I both lost our jobs, and left the city briefly…it broke me out of a period of real artist block to have the world kind of shut off. Nobody’s looking, nobody’s listening, I can do what I want.”

He went on to discuss the origins of the paintings’ themes. “The work is largely an exploration of this cross-section about ideas of masculinity. You take all of these hallmarks of a certain kind, the idea of man, particularly from the culture I was coming from when I was younger. A lot of hunting, things like that, that I kind of enjoyed because it got me outside and I liked spending time with my dad. But the actual activities themselves I felt very alienated by.” The works make visual the concept of how traditional masculine roles were once grounded in industries and activities that have, in many communities, disappeared. “Now, looking back and with the kind of discourse about what is a positive version of masculinity that we can espouse, and tying that in with social and labor history, there’s a lot of this that has just fallen away. A lot of the structures that used to support you. You had a societal role. For me, looking back at personal family history but also regional history, like de-industrialization, the hollowing out of that sector of industry, and that expression of your identity and culture, becomes the literal hollowing out of these entities, these ghosts. On the one hand, it’s this metaphor, and on the other hand it also gestures toward, I hope, an invitation to transcend. To break these hard-set boundaries of what you are not only as a man, but as a human.”

Lank’s work vividly incorporates art historical and pop cultural references, including surrealist art, cartoons, and perhaps most significantly, the murals created by artists paid by New Deal program, the Works Progress Administration in the 1930’s. The artist agrees that he “situates it in that historical narrative, communicating with WPA works, Mexican muralists, American regionalists, who get papered over in favor of the high Modernism [art movement] that comes after. But this was a painting movement that was deeply invested in labor, in locality, that didn’t have the same kind of transcendental aims. It was work for hire, it had a different social purpose, and there are some true works of genius that kind of got lost in the shuffle.” 

As art that directly addresses the breakdown of traditional work roles and how that impacts society, and that is unapologetic about its art history influences, the exhibition feels timely as our culture is grappling with the influence of AI. When asked how he feels about the role of the artist in this moment: “I think the role of an artist is as a reminder that human labor, the human capacity to create and to find meaning, is not only worthwhile to participate in, but you’re making the case for why it’s worthwhile to be human.”

Revenant Blues is on view at Hawk + Hive through September 7th. Zachary Lank also has a painting included in the exhibition Calico & Tin Horns at the Andes Hunting Tavern Museum, on view through October 25th.