L.L. Contemporary is thrilled to present its first solo exhibition of Vancouver-based artist Etienne Zack, entitled “At the End of Numbers.” The exhibition will feature eleven of Zack’s most recent paintings, some of which utilize acrylic and gel image transfers alongside oil on canvas. For the past decade, the relationships between text, images and technology have been fundamental in Zack’s work.

The phrase “At the End of Numbers” appears to be concrete, but it actually demands abstract thinking and imagination. According to the artist, this title reflects his creative process for this exhibition. The paintings represent scenes and places he has visited, which he then paints from memory using photo-transfers found through Google image searches based on keywords and sentences. This method allows him to access aspects of remembered scenes from other people’s memories, creating a version of a remembered reality. The process involves filling in the incalculable details that exist in their minds. Ultimately, the artist likes to think that at the end of numbers there are images.

Etienne Zack studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Concordia University and College St-Laurent in Montreal. Etienne Zack’s paintings can often be seen through the lens of the painting medium itself, while references to literature, text, cinema, video, performance, sculpture and architecture are just as common terrains. In his recent work, Zack has drawn on digital images, information data gathering and cloud space storage technologies as significant motifs and agents affecting our daily experience of reality. His work considers what contemporary pictures can and/or could be. His canvasses are code-like environments or mental maps that consider the many layers in which paint, language, text, image, history and architecture come together to articulate our emotional, psychological and physical understanding of contemporary realities. Philosophically, Zack considers painting as a writing and reading technology.

Etienne Zack has had notable solo exhibitions at several institutions, including the Esker Foundation in Canada, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Bergen Kunsthall in Norway, Thomas Dane Gallery in England, Surrey Art Gallery in Canada, and Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto. Zack’s work can be found in institutions and museums such as the National Gallery of Canada, Art Bank of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, Montreal Fine Arts Museum, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, National Fine Arts Museum of Quebec, Surrey Art Gallery, Glenbow Museum, City of Montreal, Zabludowicz Collection (London, England) and The Model Museum (Sligo, Ireland). In addition, his work is featured in numerous corporate and private collections across Canada, the United States, Europe and China.