December 11, 2009 - January 16, 2010
Opening reception: Friday, December 11, 2009, 6-8pm

JASON MIDDLEBROOK and ZOHAR LAZAR
SHITHEAD AND GARBAGE MAN

Sara Meltzer Gallery is pleased to present SHITHEAD AND GARBAGE MAN, an exhibition of recent works on paper by Zohar Lazar and Jason Middlebrook. Included in the exhibition are works that the artists created in the style of "exquisite corpse" - trading pictures back and forth until complete - as well as works created by the artists individually. The exhibition is on view December 11 - January 16, 2009. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6pm.

The title of the exhibition suggests a partnership between two mischievous characters. In recent years both Lazar and Middlebrook moved from New York City to upstate New York where they now live and work full-time. Their friendship and collaboration developed out of common ground as fathers and as artists eager to build an artistic community where they currently reside. SHITHEAD AND GARBAGE MAN is a body of work that revolves around their shared concerns for the environment and an understanding of the symbiotic relationship between consumption and waste.

Lazar's persona "Shithead" is the guilty producer; a being constructed of organic material such as mud, sticks, leaves and tar. "Shithead" is the every man, driven to work and inevitably producing waste. For Lazar, "Shithead" is a figurative model who informs a narrative that is played out in many of his paintings, and also an autobiographical character that inspires him on a formal level.

Middlebrook's "Garbage Man", originally conceived as a Halloween costume composed entirely of detritus, has expanded into a series of drawings revolving around similar themes as Lazar's. "Shithead" and "Garbage Man" are a stand-in for a global problem: the production and contribution of waste to the environment and the destruction of the planet. "Garbage Man" like "Shithead", cannot help himself from producing waste and adding to the landfills. Similarly, "Shithead" is also haunted by guilt and unresolved feelings of how to tread lightly on this planet, preserve the environment and raise his children to do the same.

As fathers, the artist's relationship to the environment is a significant concern and central to their work. As artists living and working in the Hudson Valley, The Hudson River School of Painting has greatly influenced them and inspired them to create a new language in which nature and it's ruin are at the forefront.

During the opening reception, Lazar and Middlebrook will oversee a purging project inspired by John Baldessari's "Cremation Project" of 1970. A hundred artists have been invited to donate a piece of art that will be burned in a barrel on the terrace of the gallery. Entitled "Shithead and Garbage Man Burn Barrel", this cleansing project will provide artists the opportunity to dispose of a work of art. The "Burn Barrel" is a performative component to the exhibition and a gathering with the intention to inspire reflection on process and participation.

Zohar Lazar is widely known for illustrations published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and GQ. Since relocating to upstate New York, Lazar has focused on paintings unrelated to his commercial work. Lazar's work has been exhibited Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY and Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA.

Middlebrook received a BFA from the University of California at Santa Cruz, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and is an alumnus of the Whitney Independent Study Program. Middlebrook's work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at institutions worldwide including Centro Arte Contemporanea, Sienna, Italy; The Wellcome Trust, London, UK; Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA; Aspen Art Museum, CO; SMART Project Space, Amsterdam, Netherlands; New Museum of Contemporary Art and the former Whitney Branch at Altria in New York. Middlebrook recently had a solo exhibition, Jason Middlebrook: Live with Less, at the University Art Museum, Albany, NY. His work will be included in the upcoming exhibition Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL. Middlebrook's work has been reviewed Art in America, Art Forum, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Sculpture Magazine and Tema Celeste, among other publications. Middlebrook is represented by Sara Meltzer Gallery.