Gallery4Culture
2008-2009 Season

Zack Bent
Buffalo Trace
May 7 - 29, 2009

reception May 7, 2009, 6 – 8 p.m.

Home and family are the epicenter of Zack Bent's photographic and video works, on view at Gallery4Culture in May. Bent's work is derived from make-shift historic scenarios which he stages and directs, casting his family, two sons Ezra and Solomon and his wife Gala (a visual artist whose work was featured in Gallery4Culture in April) as stand-ins. The scenes reference the behaviors of other tribes and communities; they offer the artist a wealth of engaging imagery, layers of meaning, and the benefit of quality family time. Bent states, "I am interested in how my culture (family) can query human behavior by replaying our life to the tune of other histories."

Bent's work in Buffalo Trace focuses on the Boy Scouts, an iconic American institution. Zack Bent's father was a Boy Scout within the Buffalo Trace Council in southern Indiana. "The tradition of scouting was handed down to me by him. And like the true Buffalo Trace, which was a migratory buffalo path through Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois that acted as road west for early Americans, scouting bears its trace in my life."

Bent's creative process relies on negotiating a balance between the vision he has constructed and the spontaneity his family contributes to the staged scenarios. "We perform re-imagined activities and rituals in front of the camera and allow it to set permanent images that ride the line between spontaneous snapshots and contrived scenarios. In this space between farce and truth, images often emerge that blur the boundaries between the natural and the spiritual, the specific and the universal, the childlike and the mature."

Bent was born in California and spent his formative years in rural Indiana. He studied architecture and environmental design at Ball State University, where he became intrigued with photography as a method of investigating ideas. In 2006, he moved with his family to Seattle to attend graduate school at the University of Washington, earning an MFA in 2008.

Gallery4Culture is located within 4Culture offices at 101 Prefontaine PL S, Seattle WA 98104 at the corner of Third and Prefontaine, in the Tashiro/Kaplan Building. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, closed government holidays; the gallery is open and free to the public. For more information about this program call 206 296.8674.