GALLERY 851

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EAST HAMPTON, NY – JULY 24, 2026

GALLERY 851 will be presenting DUBIOUS CHARACTERS, works by Joe Zucker (1941 – 2024) from the series Portrait of Joseph Smith (1984). Large mixed-media process paintings which defy explicit categorization, relaying satirical depictions of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

Zucker was a master at successfully challenging traditional conceptions of art and finding ways to synthesize a wide range of materials, techniques, and subjects, combining graphic shapes and abstract imagery to form a diverse, visual language.

Aesthetically interesting objects with a complex iconography – this mastery is fully exemplified in the works from Portrait of Joseph Smith, Zucker’s first series of process paintings of 1984. The works are highly personalized dedications to the Dubious Character: Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church.

Beginning with a slat-framed, blank, white canvas – mostly rectangular, occasionally triangular – he cut out sections of the frame, then, dividing these into small units, attached to each of them a long length of wooden dowel. He used the resulting tools, a bit like croupier’s rakes, to push thick black paint across sections of the canvas, at times overlapping two pushes, producing paths of paint as wide as the slats at the end of these tools. Zucker left the tools, with their now-hardened paint, attached to the canvas surface, with some length of dowel handles sticking out beyond the perimeters of the canvas. Then he transformed the abstract to figurative by adding gloves, a ski mask, and socks to the ends of the dowels, creating “a stick figure saint with the apparel of a common criminal.”

Showing simultaneously to Gallery 851’s exhibition will be selections from Zucker’s 1000 Brushstrokes, at the internationally celebrated Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, across the street at 830 Springs Fireplace Road.

OPENING RECEPTION
August 1st 5-7pm

Gallery 851 will be open
Thursday – Sunday 3-7pm or by appointment

ABOUT GALLERY 851

Gallery 851 is an independent, artist-run exhibition and studio space in the historic district of Springs, NY. Presenting contemporary art with a focus on both the maker and their work. Programming will include group and solo exhibitions by emerging, mid-career and established artists, as well as features of historically significant artists, in cooperation with representative estates.

For more information, exhibition images, or to arrange a preview - please email info@gallery851.com