Zach La
Artist Bio
Zach Larkin (b.2003) is an artist based in Austin, Texas. He is a graduate with a B.F.A in studio arts at The University of Texas at Austin. His media often branches through illustration, publication, and performance. He has exhibited work at Flatbed Press, the UT Visual Arts Center (VAC), UT Dell Medical school, ICOSA Collective, and the Art Center of Corpus Christi.
Bittersweet Queer Mindscapes
As a queer artist and abuse survivor, raised in a low-income household, I create work that speaks to queer bittersweetness. Utilizing my vantage point, I work to dismantle the importance of the nuclear suburbia, gender expectations, and heteronormativity imbued into my upbringing.Oftentimes, I source my imagery from fieldwork visits to neighborhoods I’ve lived in- within Austin and San Antonio. Within my work, I explore what I identify to be “queer infrastructures”. Urban infrastructure within the state of Texas is a vastly oppressive and inefficient environment for the people who rely on it most. I discovered within my work, the signifiers of texas urbanism to inform the mind space of queer Texans.
The narratives within my work are autobiographical, often resembling a vulnerable but unreliable web of memory. I find these memories traversing the intersections of queer identity, mental health disparities, and the disillusionment of the family dynamic.
I am intrigued by the performative nature of print, and the way print can convey intimacy in the same breath of violence. The physicality of the works can be almost assaulting in their contrast, yet engage in spatial confusion akin to bleeding water or warped visions.