Zachary Fabri
(born 1977, Miami, Florida; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York)
Through his performances captured for the video lens, Zachary Fabri often addresses the relationship between the role of the individual and the integrity of community. Location and chance constitute critical elements in his interventions. For example, in My High Fructose Corn Syrup and White Flour Constipation (2007), Fabri, quietly enters a public intersection in Reykjavik, Iceland, carrying carbonated drinks and a sack of white flour. Over the course of several minutes, Fabri stops traffic as he engages onlookers with his ritualized actions–a series of seizure-like movements in which he drinks then gargles soda, holding the liquid in his mouth while he contorts his body backwards. Before the action is over, as Fabri is covering himself with soda, he baptizes himself with flour, kneeling then falling to the ground. This confrontational approach serves to create tension in the work. Fabri uses his body as a mediator between his conceptual ideas and the communities in which he presents them. In the work on view here, he performs the implications of excess and the lack of proper nutrition. His street performances position him in the tradition of guerilla-theater, which happens without any forewarning or pre-staging, and has been used throughout the history of performance art to address political and social issues.
Biography
Zachary Fabri received his BFA in graphic design from New World School of the Arts in Miami in 2000. He continued his studies at Hunter College, where he received an MFA in 2007. His solo exhibitions include Marrow in the Morrows, Third Streaming, New York (2012), and Not Cool: Out of Balance, Galerie Open, Berlin (2010). His group exhibitions include Fore, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2012); Civil Disobedience, White Box, New York (2010); Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT (2009); Metro Poles: Art in Action, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY (2008); Neo Neo Dada, Rush Arts Gallery, New York (2007); Dark Matter, Galerie Open, Berlin (2007); Momentum: Nordic Biennial for Contemporary Art, Moss, Norway (2006); Domestic Affairs, Projekt 0047, Berlin (2006); and What Means Free?, Chelsea Hotel, New York (2005).
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RELATED EVENTS
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Zachary Fabri: Shiny Shoes
The Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street, New York)
Organized by Adrienne Edwards, Performa and Thomas J. Lax, The Studio Museum in Harlem