Rachael Zur
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Rachael Zur’s (featured in both Create! Magazine and AQ Volume VI) expanded paintings blend sculptural physicality with traditional painting techniques to depict objects found in living rooms. Her work is twice published in New American Paintings, as well as Friend of the Artist, Studio Visit Magazine, and Create! Magazine. After 12 years as a stay-at-home mom, Zur resumed her education and completed her MFA in 2019 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since then, she has exhibited her work locally and nationally in places such as Museum of Museums, Seattle, WA; CHART Gallery, New York, NY; Stove Works, Chattanooga, TN; SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA; Artworks Northwest Biennial at Umpqua Valley Arts Association, Roseburg, OR; Young Space; and has artworks in the permanent collection at Soho House, Portland, OR. In 2021, she drove her family of five across the country in an RV to complete a residency at Stay Home Gallery while homeschooling her children en route. A two-time finalist for the Hopper Prize, Zur currently resides in the greater Portland, OR metropolitan area where she strives to set boundaries on when her kids can hang out in her studio.
www.rachaelzur.com
What inspired you to become an artist, and how did you decide to commit to this path?
My late father was a ceramicist and my mother has a background in graphic design; perhaps as I was knit in my mother’s womb, my path was already laid out. In 2016, after an emergency appendectomy, I felt nudged to deepen my commitment to making art and became laser-focused on the things I cared about most.
Could you share the story or concept behind your recent work?
My Expanded Paintings depict objects found in homes and their curious capacity to hold the remaining radiance and tenderness of the dead. Grief is a concept in the work, but so is the love that leaves traces of itself in domestic spaces. The arrangement of knickknacks and furniture in homes tells stories about those no longer present—what they valued, how they lived, and who they loved.
What role does experimentation and exploration play in your artistic practice?
As frustrating as it can be when materials don’t cooperate the way they ought to—a piece breaks, or a method of making that always works fails—these experiences are rich in opportunity for finding new approaches in my art practice. Making time just for material exploration is helpful; however, it’s when the work I’m making isn’t cooperating and I am in the pursuit of solving that problem that the most intense, and ultimately rewarding, experimentation happens.
What message do you hope your art conveys to the world?
Take heart; death cannot consume the ripple effect of love. Domestic spaces hold echoes of care once offered from those no longer present, hinting that something quiet and powerful is set in motion in our ordinary lives as we attend to one another.
Share a mantra or favorite quote that keeps you going.
“Run your own race.” It’s a mantra I’ve used since high school cross country about letting go of comparisons and moving at a pace that’s sustainable for the long haul. When I move at the pace that works for me, limit comparing myself to others, and am honest with myself about my limitations—I make my best work.
