Burning Down the House: Zachary Aronson Pyrographic Artist

Posted on by Diversions LA

 

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Zachary Aronson’s new solo art exhibition, Rhythm is on exhibit at Rhythm Visuals gallery in DTLA. Opened last Saturday, the show runs until February 17th.

Aronson is an open-flame pyographer, using blowtorches to “paint” the way others use brushes. His beautifully detailed burns are designed to explore the relationship between man and nature. They’re burnished and glowing, as if the fire had crept its light into the wood itself.

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If you haven’t seen Aronson work, he’s compelling: his beautiful art is part of an immersive experience, a shaping of life from fire.

 

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His faces, portraits, and eyes are all dramatic and magical; fairytales of a sort, written into wood.

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Aronson’s faces are larger than life, exposing vulnerability and wisdom; timeless and mysterious when burned into wood. The use of fire – a destructive element – to create a graceful, flowing image is deeply compelling.  The artist looks at his work as collaborative: a partnership with him and with nature; creating new purpose and transformation to the material he works with.
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The Los Angeles-based artist is curating additional events throughout the run of the show to highlight and expand viewers experience at the gallery; so if you missed the opening, there’s plenty more to see and enjoy.

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Coming up this Saturday, the 9th, there’s a program of meditation, breathework, light movement and sound healing from 6 to 11 p.m.;  2/15 from 7 to 11 p.m., Aronson presents Heart(Beats), a night of music featuring performances from 5 eclectic singer-songwriters. And more music will be on hand at the afternoon closing event the afternoon of the 17th.

Rhythm Visuals is located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, near Staples Center, at 1040 S. Olive St. Los Angeles, CA 90015.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist

Zachary Aronson Explores His Totem

Posted on by Diversions LA
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Pyrographic artist Zachary Aronson isn’t burning down the house – he’s burning wood panels into fine art by using a blowtorch as a paintbrush.

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Aronson’s open-flame pyrography is in a grand display at the Ernie Wolfe Gallery through July 21. With this new show, Totem, he gives us larger than life portraits that make strong use of wood grains with his emblazoned images.

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He notes “My current work is comprised of large portraits burnt into planks of wood. I look at my artistic practice as collaboration with nature, using the traditionally destructive element of fire to breathe new life into an organic material.”

Watching Aronson work – swift, sure, skilled, and deeply, literally in touch with his medium, is a gift. The artist often perform live at art and private events, and in doing so, viewers can literally see animate life appearing within the inanimate surface of the wood. He’s a conjurer as well as an artist.

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Aronson uses the grains and imperfections in each wood panel within his work, paying tribute to the textures and the beauty of the natural medium, as well as to the people whose visages he frees from within it.

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He describes his work as being “about humanity, individuality and depth of feeling,” and that is certainly intrinsic to his work.

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The large-scale pieces here are almost anthemic, visually. They’re gorgeous, alive portraits, and they are also a kind of collective and individual homage to the spirit that inhabits each face, each eye.

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Evocative and warm, the works emerge, or seem to be born, from the grain of the wood; they are made more beautiful because of it.

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Aronson says “Totem include dozens of original pyrographs including an immersive 750-square-foot maze consisting of forty  8-foot tall redwood portraits.  Additional pyrographs on redwood, birch, pine, sequoia and other various woods are displayed on the gallery walls.”

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There is a sense of reverence almost immediately upon entering the well-curated gallery space. As one walks through the maze of works, it is striking that the vastness and perfection of Aronson’s portraiture feels like a living memorial, a tribute – to the people whose images he’s painted with fire, to the entities of wood and fire themselves, to a raw and exciting intertwining of medium, method, and craft.

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“I think artistic practice is a collaboration with nature, instilling new purpose and identity in my medium by transforming wood to ash in the primal fusion of fire and earth,” Aronson asserts.
As primal, tribal, and powerful as a Totem should be.
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Aronson with gallerist Ernie Wolfe, above.
The exhibition runs through July 21st, and the gallery is located at
1655 Sawtelle Blvd. in West Los Angeles.
– Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

Burning Down the House

Posted on by Diversions LA

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We’ve written about the stunning pyrographic techniques of Zachary Aronson before.  With an artist’s reception of his work upcoming at DBA256 Gallery in Pomona, here’s a piece on Aronson from the team at Shoebox PR.

It is said that scars create character and in the case of Zachary Aronson who scars wood panels with fire to create intimate and revealing portraits, it’s the unseen experience that speaks the loudest.

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Currently on view at DBA256 in Pomona, “Portraits” draws the viewer into contemplation of humanity and our collective struggle to be individual. Zachary, a recent Cal Arts Grad, uses flame rather than traditional tools to sear images onto wood planks giving his portraits a primal connection between wood and flame that we intuitively understand.

“Portraits” is not what we come to expect from the genre. The larger than life faces are exposed and vulnerable, visceral and raw, created using fire, a traditionally destructive element that confronts the viewer with windows into encounters that demand their attention.

“Anonymity is very important in my work,” says Zachary. “I want to catch the viewer’s eye and draw them in without presenting them with all the information about the image. I don’t want to give the viewer everything, what I choose to omit is significant.”

Zachary Aronson Artist in The Way Installation 2014

“My practice is very immediate, constantly altering at my fingertips,” says Zachary. “When standing in front of a wooden plank, I visualize images I want to reveal among naturally occurring knots, grains and textures.”

“Portraits” confronts us with faces in various states of emotion that show us how we are scarred by experience and how those scars reveal a nature that is beautiful in its unique way.

Zachary Aronson A Forest Dark Installation 2014

Aronson uses torches to effectively draw with fire creating what he refers to as pyrographs. Implementing this drawing technique has brought Aronson in closer contact with his medium, creating a connection between nature and human hand by utilizing all of the earthly properties involved; the natural texture and color of wood, fire, and ash.

Zachary Aronson | Portraits
Artist’s Reception
Saturday, May 14th 6-11 PM
During Pomona Second Saturday
dba256
256 S. Main Street
Pomona Ca 91766
– Shoebox PR; Photos: Jack Burke and courtesy of artist

 

Zachary Aronson at Stone Malone Gallery

Posted on by Diversions LA

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What’s pyrography? It’s wood burning, it’s art, it’s the sweet-smelling creation of artist Zach Aronson now on view for one week only on Melrose at the Stone Malone Gallery. Friday and Saturday night there’s live music, too, so go on down and be sure to inhale – the redwood creations are as fragrant as they are cool.

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“Metamorphosis is the title of the show, and it really is just that for me. I’m really exploring in my work,” Aronson says.

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“I like the idea that I’m changing the medium I’m working with. I’m turning wood to ash with fire – without adding any new elements,” he asserts.

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“Fire is traditionally a destructive element, but I’m creating with it, not destroying,” he continues.

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“Each work is drawn from life using an open flame. I do portraits on the spot. It’s relatively fast work,” he explains.

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Sometimes, Aronson goes for a complete, rather than partial portrait image, but he says he prefers the partials for now, that their nature is more evocative.

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Viewers will find Aronson’s work haunting. There is something profoundly moving about these artistic “scars” reshaping the wood, creating a very life like portrait in an unusual medium.

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Aaronson’s work with wood originated from necessity. “One night I couldn’t find any paper to draw on, so I salvaged a scrap piece of lumber and decided to draw on it instead. The first time was with graphite, and soon afterwards charcoal. I came to the realization that charcoal is simply burnt wood, and tried using a flame as a drawing implement. Over time I became more skilled with this medium and came to prefer drawing with fire.”

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His large-scale work is surprisingly intricate and revealing. With such detailed portraits shaped on wood panels, the wood takes on an aspect of skin. These could be the faces of giants, impressions realistically superimposed. The pyrographic technique provides a layer of softness in the work, and in the scarring of the wood to create the portraits, a three-dimensional aspect that draws the viewer. Aaronson describes his art as “Portraits focused around ideas of identity and anonymity, and how these concepts influence who we are, both as individuals and as a culture.” However they’re described, it’s not just the size of the pieces that make it hard to look away.

Stone Malone is located at 7619 1/2 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046, the show runs through Saturday night.

  • Genie Davis; all photos: Jack Burke