Etienne Zack: Artist Analysis

Etienne Zack is a Canadian artist, born in Montreal, with an illusionistic style of painting that brings life to objects that are typically seen as mundane, such as boxes and packaging. Zack’s work heavily reflects his long-term home of Vancouver with the objects’ adaptability and fluidity.

James D. Campbell energetically writes about the life and the artistic career of Etienne Zack between 2006 and 2010, while highlighting the aspects of Zack’s artwork that sets him apart from other painters. Campbell also focuses on specific works from the prior years, including a piece featured in the Oh, Canada exhibition by MASS MoCA, “Spills in a Safe Environment”. This piece of writing will aid in articulating Zack’s style, as well as add to the understanding of his past endeavours with galleries across the country. It will also contribute the opinions of his audience and their adaptations of his pieces.

Lee Henderson reviews the common themes in Zack’s works and relates his paintings to theories of the late Georges Bataille, a French intellectual born in the 1800s. Henderson also explains Zack’s work by using the French term for do-it-yourself projects, bricolage, and includes that Zack agrees
Laurence provides in-depth descriptions about Zack’s paintings and finds a balance between surrealism and animism in many. This piece will establish the basic biographical information about Zack, as well as form characteristics of his art that come alive in the viewers’ minds as they interpret them in ways that relate to their own lives. It will assist in building a personal opinion on Zack’s works in order to strengthen an argument on why he is drastically different from other Canadian