Gary Zack
“I want to brighten someone’s life. Color is the key.”
Artist Gary Zack is energized by explorations into color. They have informed his successful 40-year career as a glass blower, a gallery owner, and now as an impressionist painter. This knowledge of color and light illuminates the emotion within his controlled designs.
Using a palette knife to layer color freehand, Gary Zack imbues his paintings with a lustrous spontaneity. Fine horsehair brush strokes soften and simplify shapes. His miniature paintings tap into the spectrum of our collective memory, encapsulating a resplendent celebration of life.
Gary Zack taught himself the intricacies of color harmony by painting figures with very finely ground glass and oil. After earning many high-profile stained-glass commissions, he then concentrated on blending colors in molten blown glass, before training others in his special techniques. Now, Gary Zack is delving into the textural possibilities of oil and acrylic paints on wood and canvas surfaces. Gary Zack Studios is located downtown, in the vibrant, small city of Saratoga Springs, NY.
In the late ‘70’s, shortly after establishing Pane in the Glass Studio, Zack considered applying for a five-year apprenticeship at the Steuben Glass Studio in Corning, NY. Torn between his fledgling business and the glow of the furnace, Zack stayed in Saratoga and nurtured his love of glass by concentrating on stained glass. The photos shown here represent a fraction of the residential, commercial and ecclesiastic commissions Zack completed over the last twenty years, here in Saratoga Springs and throughout the region.
In 1990, Zack established Symmetry Gallery, partly as a response to his growing interest in hot glass.
Working with molten glass gives the artist the freedom to blend colors and manipulate shapes in ways that are impossible in other glass disciplines. The process is magical and intense, quite unlike the cold and static limitations of flat glass.
While Zack has spent two decades working with hot glass, his passion for working with color led him to experiment with other media, especially during times when his glassblowing studio was shut down. His recent body of two-dimensional work reflects his ability to manipulate color in more a subtle and intentional manner.
The foundation of Gary Zack’s artistic interests can be distilled down to his love of color. In the early days of his stained glass work, masterful use of color was central in his designs. From sparse, contemporary, Mondrian-style compositions to lush, figurative installations, color always took center stage.
Zack’s current work with oils and acrylics presents yet another opportunity for Zack to compose pieces rich with contrasts of light and dark, texture, pattern and mood. From small color studies to larger compositions, Zack’s paintings offer yet another opportunity for lovers of color to explore and enjoy.
