De Buck Gallery is pleased to announce its grand opening show featuring Zevs, entitled Liquidated Version. In his first New York solo exhibition, Zevs (pronounced “Zeus”) interweaves unconventional street art methods with a pointed critique on high finance to create dynamic works on canvas and sculpture.
In Liquidated Version, Zevs presents a new body of work using his “liquidation” process for which he is known, as well as new conceptual techniques, to confront the financial crisis head on. By targeting the emblematic logos of financial leaders, Zevs questions not only the stability of the institutions, but also their branding strength as visual commodities. Drawing on Alfred Hitchcock’s famous thrillers, Birds and Psycho, as well as Breton Ellis Easton’s American Psycho, Zevs uses looming birds, bloody shower curtains and pristine hatchets to add an eerie element of foreboding and impending doom. Moody and psychological, Liquidated Version fills the space with a fresh look at the “greed is good” theme and the confusion between surface and substance of American high finance.
Zevs began as a French graffiti artist in Paris in the 90s, acquiring his pseudonym from a Parisian metro train named Zevs that almost hit him. Drawing on his namesake’s mythological attributes, Zevs began to see the street and the city as his canvas and his kingdom. Zevs body of work involves performances at its core, beginning with a series of performances entitled Visual Attack, where the artist attacked several public advertisements, leaving them with artistic bullet-holes and trails of blood. His next series of performances, Visual Kidnapping, built further on Zevs exploration of brands, advertising and consumer culture by literally kidnapping images from advertisements, emblazing the message “PAY NOW” on the victimized ad. The last series, Liquidated Logos, demonstrates Zevs growth in his body of work, as he “liquidates” the all-too-familiar logos of worldwide companies and makes them his own. Zevs experimentation with the pervasive symbols of pop culture and consumerism has proven to be a rich discussion in the art world and beyond.
Zevs lives and works in Zurich and New York.
