Tim Zuck

Born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1947, Tim Zuck completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1971 and a Masters of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 1972. He worked as an instructor at NSCAD from 1972-1979. Both educational milieus were hubs for conceptual art at this time and much of Zuck’s earlier practice reflected the prevalent interest in the process-oriented. In 1979, he left NSCAD and his earlier performance, video, and photography work to pursue painting full time. Generally considered a realist, Zuck is known to paint common objects, familiar places and known genres paired down to their most essential form. In his expertly executed paintings, he pushes the boundaries of realism, “I really try to slow down time by trying to take simple things and actually tear them down, peel away at it. I basically try to reduce the object to its essence and that is really intense for me and it works.” Untitled #72 epitomizes Zuck’s approach to artmaking; a bird’s eye view of the artist’s house in Purcell’s Cove, near the entrance to Halifax Harbour, is distilled to its fundamental core. Zuck has shown his work extensively with over 30 solo exhibitions and 50 group exhibitions in North America and Asia. In 2002, a retrospective of his work traveled the country, which surveyed his work from 1976-2003. He now resides in Penetanguishine, Ontario and keeps a studio in Georgian Bay.