The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Zak Prekop debuts a new body of work in his first solo museum exhibition. Over his two-decade career, Prekop has explored the intricate possibilities of mark-making, drawing influence from musical compositions and meditative, koan-like objectives that draw out the time spent painting. While his process is often described as methodical and meticulous, Prekop emphasizes that spontaneity remains essential, particularly in the early stages. The relationship between these spontaneous gestures and the more controlled, layered process that follows is central to his practice. Through painstaking labor, Prekop’s layered compositions evoke cartographic and geological representations, embodying a sublime complexity that mirrors the subtlety of organic forms. As Prekop reflects, “The more time I put into the paintings, the more alien they look to me in the end, because I can’t easily reclaim that time spent in my mind.”