Aggie Zed

Derived from the title of one of the artist's works, Keeper's Keep alludes to British usage of the term ""keeper"" for ""curator"" and plays on the double meaning of ""keep"" as both a noun and a verb. Aggie Zed was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised among farm animals on Sullivans Island. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.F.A. in painting and sculpture. Although Zed's work derives much of its meaning from literary associations, her imagery teems with invention and startling leaps of imagination. Her visual poetry conjures a world in which logic and rationality take a comfortable backseat. Human foibles and impulses are placed in the foreground and even though she works in a variety of media, her conceptual approach remains consistent throughout. She is a storyteller whose works take us out of our consensual reality and into a world filled with absurdity, ambiguity, and the gifts of artistic imagination.

The paintings are rendered in mixed media on paper. They depict humans and/or animals, often located within a domestic sphere or farmyard. There may be references to dinosaurs seen from the windows or other anachronistic details. Mirrors, doorways, and framed artwork on the walls become portals to other realms. Animals play the role of participant observers to the human drama. They are depicted variously as companions, sages, sources of amusement, means of transportation and foils to daily tasks. The collision of disparate materials and elements in these works mirrors the beauty and fragility of the human condition.

Distributed for the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art.