Andrew Zarou

Andrew Zarou
I had Been a Child Here/Hills (detail), 2009
Aluminum and paper collage on paper
19” x 19”

As a teenager Andrew Zarou was fascinated by the Cold War Era short wave radio transmissions that covert agents used to send coded messages around the world. Inherent in his deep interest in these broadcasts was his lack of understanding. In essence, his ignorance of the meaning of these electronic messages formed the basis of his interest. The random, repetitive lists of numbers and odd tone sequences riveted him as a child and forms the basis for Andrew's visual vocabulary today.

Zarou's mixed media collages on paper draw from a rich history of recontextualization in this medium begun by the Dadaists some 100 years ago. His images are rhythmic compositions of found images, graph paper, spray paint, aluminum foil and paper scraps. The meaning of the constituent parts of each composition are in most cases lost to the viewer. However, this loss of meaning allows us the opportunity to construct our own meanings in the very same way Andrew did with the clandestine broadcasts in his youth. By working rapidly and in opposition to his natural inclination for order Zarou seeks to build spaces and map topographies through time, space and repetition.

Andrew Zarou has exhibited institutions and galleries nationally including, the Brooklyn Public Library (2008), P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, NY (1999). He was an artist in residence at The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists in Reykjavik, Iceland (2008) and at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida (2009) and in 2008 received a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. He received his BA in art from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA in 1994 and maintains his studio in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood.