Bryan Zanisnik is a contemporary artist working in video, performance, photography, and installation. Zanisnik's multidisciplinary practice uses objects en masse to explore American culture, Freudian psychology, and familial relationships. His site-specific installations have addressed diverse subjects, including a crumbling library of Philip Roth novels, an entropic swamp littered with Northern New Jersey waste, and an Americana museum reconstructed in Guangzhou, China. Critic David Duncan commented that Zanisnik "comical impartation of dubious history and catalogue of trivial possessions sidestep sentimentality while conveying a fascination with the type of inherited narrative that gets passed down in close-knit families." In the spring of 2012 Zanisnik was involved in a legal battle with

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

over the use of Roth's ''The Great American Novel'' in his performance at the

Abrons Arts Center The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founded under the ...

. According to ''Artnet'' magazine, "the law firm representing author Philip Roth personally served performance artist Bryan Zanisnik with a cease and desist letter at the Abrons Arts Center on New York's Lower East Side, where Zanisnik was in the midst of staging Every Inch a Man, a performance that involves locking himself inside a Plexiglass case while he silently reads Roth's ''The Great American Novel'' and a fan blows old baseball cards and money into the air around him." Since 2002 Zanisnik has photographed and written about the Meadowlands, a polluted swamp in northern New Jersey. Focused on the objects discarded within the landscape, Zanisnik was known to have had encounters with local police, environmental scientists, hobo encampments, and homeland security. Critic Christine Smallwood said Zanisnik's "photo essay in Triple Canopy 'Beyond Passaic' documents the author's illegal wanderings in New Jersey's heavily polluted and largely neglected Meadowlands. Inspired by

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...

, himself famously inspired by the region, Zanisnik walks abandoned train tracks, finds discarded objects, and discovers a hobo encampment under a bridge. While Smithson was drawn to 'geology and rock quarries, monumental vacancies and ruins in reverse', Zanisnik is interested in the legal ambiguity of the space, its toxicity, and the people living on its waste."Christine Smallwood, "Return to the Meadowlands", Triple Canopy, February 2, 2012
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Personal life and education

Zanisnik was born in Union, New Jersey in 1979. He received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey, United States. It has a wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three schools. While affiliated with the Methodism, Me ...

and an M.F.A. from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

. He has completed residencies at the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...

, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program, the

Smack Mellon Smack Mellon is a non-profit arts organization located at 92 Plymouth Street, in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Smack Mellon supports emerging, under-recognized mid-career, and women artists through a highly regarded exhibition program, competitive studio res ...

Artist Studio Program, the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDo ...

, the

Art Omi Art Omi, formerly Omi International Arts Center, is a non-profit international arts organization located in Columbia County in Ghent, New York. The organization provides residencies for writers, artists, architects, musicians, dancers and chore ...

International Artists Residency, and the Guangdong Times Museum in

Guangzhou, China Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

. He is married to Anna Kaschel, formerly a

fashion designer Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applied arts, applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has va ...

at H&M. She is

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

; they met at a New Year's Eve party in Brooklyn in 2014.

Exhibitions

He has exhibited and performed in New York at

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution at 2201 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, United States. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

SculptureCenter SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit, contemporary art museum located in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. It was founded in 1928 as "The Clay Club" by Dorothea Denslow. In 2013, SculptureCentre attracted around 13,000 visitors.Randy Kenned ...

and the

Queens Museum of Art The Queens Museum (formerly the Queens Museum of Art) is an art museum and educational center at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. Established in 1972, the museum includes the '' Panorama of the City of Ne ...

; in Philadelphia at the Institute of Contemporary Art and

the Fabric Workshop and Museum The Fabric Workshop and Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a non-profit arts organization devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally recognized artis ...

; in Miami at the De La Cruz Collection; in Chicago at the

Museum of Contemporary Photography A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

; in Los Angeles at LAXART; and internationally at the Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna and the Futura Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague. Zanisnik’s work has been reviewed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Art in America,

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

, and

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

, amongst others. He is included in Art:21's documentary series New York Close Up and is a contributing writer at

Triple Canopy Triple Canopy, Inc., is an American private security company and private military company (PMC) that provides armed security, mission support, and risk management services to corporate and government clients. The firm was founded in May 2003 by ...

References

External links

Bryan Zanisnik Studio WebsiteBryan Zanisnik, New York Close Up - Art:21RAIR: Bryan Zanisnik / Made in Philadelphia (1987) - Institute of Contemporary ArtBryan Zanisnik in Saturday Session - MoMA PS1Beyond Passaic: A Meadowlands Photo Essay - Triple CanopyArtist-in-Residence - Smack Mellon Artist Studio ResidencyBryan Zanisnik - Bomb MagazineBaseball Card as Madeleine - Triple CanopyBryan Zanisnik at Sunday L.E.S. - Art in America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zanisnik, Bryan American video artists 1979 births Hunter College alumni Artists from New York (state) Artists from New Jersey Living people American performance artists