Zoe Walsh uses a queer lens to deconstruct notions of sexuality that are enshrined in Western culture, along with assumptions surrounding gender expression and identity—all of which are grafted onto the physical body. Walsh’s work forges an aesthetic of trans subjectivity that offers openings out of the entrapments of the gender binary. Drawing from Warhol’s use of the silkscreened multiple as a method of deconstruction, Walsh addresses entanglements of embodiment and desire in spectatorship of gay male pornography, recently reworking late 1970s photographs produced by Falcon Studios. The erotically stylized figures at the site of a swimming pool are transformed through SketchUp and Photoshop, eventually appearing as stripped-down silhouettes in the paintings. Visual pleasure is sacred to Walsh’s work and linked to ideas of spectatorship and a desire to create space for trans identifications.
Zoe Walsh (b. 1989, Washington D.C.) received their BA from Occidental College and MFA from Yale University. Solo exhibitions include Exposures at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris and Desire Distilled, curated by Jess e Mockrin, at Pieter in Los Angeles. Recent group shows include Eleven Figures in II Parts, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA; Brush Against, Peppers Art Gallery, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA; Queer Paranormal: An Exhibition Concerning Shirley Jackson and “The Haunting of Hill House,” Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT; Virtual Dream Center, La Maison des Arts, Malakoff, France; and Queering Space, Alfred University Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY. I came to watch the morning rise was Walsh’s first solo show with M+B in June 2020. Zoe Walsh lives and works in Los Angeles.
Born | |
1989, Washington, D.C. | |
EDUCATION | |
2016 | MFA, Painting and Printmaking, Yale University, New Haven, CT |
2011 | BA, Art History & Visual Arts, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA |
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS | |
2020 | I came to watch the morning rise, M+B, Los Angeles, CA |
2018 | Remote Light, Zeit Contemporary Art, New York, NY, curated by Bianca Boragi |
2017 | Periscope, Virtual Dream Center 2.0, (curated by Jean-Baptiste Lenglet) |
Exposures, Fondation des États-Unis, Paris, France | |
2013 | Desire Distilled, Pieter Performance Space, Los Angeles, CA, curated by Jesse Mockrin |
2012 | Cruising Affect: Peripheral Identifications, Abel Gutierrez Studio, Los Angeles, CA (with Nathan Lam Vuong) |
2011 | Tomboy, Occidental College Weingart Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS | |
2021 | Art and Hope At The End Of The Tunnel, USC Fisher Museum of Art, curated by Edward Goldman |
2020 | Eleven Figures in II Parts, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA |
Peppers Art Gallery, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA (curated by Munro Galloway) | |
2019 | Queer Paranormal (An Exhibition Concerning ShirleyJackson and “The Haunting of Hill House”), Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT |
You don't control the witness, ltd los angeles, Los Angeles, CA | |
2018 | I am no bird..., ltd los angeles, Los Angeles, CA |
Queering Space, Alfred University Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY | |
2017 | Virtual Dream Center, La Maison des Arts, Malakoff, France |
Paysages Intérieurs, Fondation des États-Unis, Paris, France | |
2016 | Queering Space, Yale School of Art Green Gallery, New Haven, CT |
Stream: Chapter Three, Two Chairs, South Windham, VT, curated by Cindy Smith | |
Merry Go Round, Yve YANG Gallery, Boston, MA | |
Partners, Abrons Art Center, New York, NY, curated by Anoka Faruqee & Michael Queenland | |
Benefit Auction, Field Projects Gallery, New York, NY | |
Double Dip, Yale School of Art Green Gallery, New Haven, CT, curated by Sheila Pepe & Molly Zuckerman-Hartung | |
New Genealogies, Yale School of Art Green Gallery, New Haven, CT, curated by John Edmonds & Jenny Tang | |
2015 | Untitled (with Dani Levine and E.E. Ikeler), Aisling Gallery, New Haven, CT |
Trans*, Yale Office of LGBT Resources, New Haven, CT | |
Second Coming, Second Life, Second Cousin, Second Base, Yale School of Art Green Gallery, New Haven, CT | |
Yale School of Art Silent Auction, FRONT Art Space, New York, NY | |
2014 | First Things, Yale School of Art Green Gallery, New Haven, CT |
2012 | Third Annual Queer Pile-Up, ForYourArt, Los Angeles, CA, curated by Darin Klein & Friends |
Dust Storm, Occasionals Gallery, London, UK | |
Granica/Border, Miroslaw Balka School of Fine Art, Poznan, Poland | |
2011 | Cargo Cult, Null/Void Gallery, London, UK |
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES | |
2016 | Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, Fondation des États-Unis, Paris, France |
2015 | Al Held Foundation Affiliated Fellow, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy |
LGBTQ Studies Graduate Student Workshop Grant, Yale University, New Haven, CT | |
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY | |
2019 | McGeeney, Makayla-Courtney. "Exhibit explores sexual ambiguity in Shirley Jackson's best known novel." Bennington Banner. October 25. |
Tenzer, Harrison. "The New Canon: 7 Queer Painters Who Are Tapping into the History Books." Cultured Magazine. June 20. | |
2018 | Ekstrand, Anna Mikaela. "Processes of Seduction. Zoe Walsh Talks About Their Show 'Remote Light' at Zeit Contemporary Art." Cultbytes. November 27. |
2017 | Frase Contemporary Art, "Frase Got Talent Catalogue," December. Manvi, Maya. "Zoe Walsh: Periscope." Virtual Dream Center 2.0, October. |
2016 | Sargent, Antwaun. "A Look Inside the First Queer Art Show at Yale." Vice: Creators Project, October 27. |
Butler, Sharon. "Examining Queer @ Yale University," Two Coats of Paint, October 21. Cummings, Mike. "Exhibit Unites Yale School of Art Students, Faculty, and Alumni Across Generations," YaleNews, January 21, 2016. | |
2013 | Wagley, Catherine. “Five Artsy Things to Do This Week: Experimental Baby-sitting and the Fuzzy Wild West,” LA Weekly, September 5. |
2011 | Diggins, Claire. “Identity in Art: Zoe Walsh’s Experience As a Studio Art Major,” The Occidental Weekly, February 14. |
LECTURES AND PANELS | |
2019 | Artist Panel (moderated by Catherine Taft), ltd los angeles, Los Angeles, CA, July 28. |
2018 | Temp Talk, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA |
2017 | Visiting Artist Lecture, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, October 31. |
2016 | The Tactile and the Visible: Bjorn Sparrman & Zoe Walsh, Yve YANG Gallery, Boston, MA, July 28. |
2015 | Perspectival Systems and Gender in Rome, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT, September 21. |
2011 | Tomboy, Queer Horizons Conference, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, April 30. The Oxy Street Art Project, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, April 18. |