Zach Bohny’s work is informed by language, pattern, and street art, as well as the history of abstract painting. He explores these compositional elements in works that range from paintings to collages and prints. In his work, there are dramatic shifts in scale, from tiny collages measuring just a couple of inches, up to large, abstract paintings. These provide very different viewing experiences. The small works are detailed and textured, inviting close examination, while the larger paintings are gestural, the paint applied thickly in places, with dark overpainting that allows pops of bright color to peek through in the form of outlines and shading reminiscent of graffiti. Both collages and large scale paintings are on view here.

Often, Bohny uses his small works as sketches for large paintings, working out proportions, the balance between positive and negative space, and experimenting with texture and surface. Bohny’s works are often interpretive of architecture, landscape, the figure, and language; these forms and symbols simultaneously stack, break apart, and adjoin, as the artist explores the relationships between them. With a strong sense of rhythm and movement, the eye is led through these lively works.

Zach Bohny received his MFA from San Jose State University in 2017. He is the recipient of the Katherine Brie Romero Memorial Art Scholarship, nominee for the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture, and two-time recipient of the Ina Gregg Thomas Memorial Art Scholarship. Bohny’s work is collected nationally and internationally, and has been included in numerous publications including Studio Visit Magazine and New American Paintings. Bohny is the Faculty Director for the Prison Arts Collective and teaches painting at California State University, Fresno.