Art Zealous visited Waterhouse & Dodd  gallery on Madison Avenue for the opening reception of its new  Michael J. Fox Foundation Benefit Exhibition where paintings, drawings and photographs from five artists are  on display  in the cozy space. Two of the artists – Tom Shannon and Jay Zukerkorn – have Parkinson’s disease, the cause that the Michael J. Fox Foundation is pioneering. 

 

Tom Shannon is an internationally renowned artist, working in a variety of mediums since 1967. His work is in the collections of many prestigious museums including The Museum of Modern Art, The Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris and The Tate Gallery, London. Shannon’s famous Ted Talk was filmed in his New York studio in 2009 when he created two of the pieces featured in the Michael J. Fox Foundation Benefit Exhibition.

 

Jay Zukerkorn’s first series Movement Disorder began as a response to his Parkinson’s diagnosis, as he accentuated his condition by deliberately blurring the images in bright, colorful beach scenes. Waterhouse & Dodd features both Movement Disorder and Zukerkorn’s new series, The Road I Am On, presenting abstract photographs highlighting the contrast between dark pavements and bright, crackled paint.

 

Art Zealous borrowed a moment  from both Tom Shannon and Jay Zukerkorn to chat about their work.

 

FIVE MINUTES WITH TOM SHANNON

 

Art Zealous:  Hometown?

Tom Shannon:  Born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

 

AZ: How has your creative process evolved through out the years?

TS: My work has become increasingly complex, fascinating, meaningful, mystical, and mysterious.

 

AZ: Your painting made by remote-controlled pendulum for the 2009 TED talk, Interview, is included in the Michael J. Fox Foundation Benefit Exhibition. Please tell us about the pendulum and how it works.

 

TS: The devise is comprised of a paint dispenser with six pots of paint that all flow to one aperture. I can control the outflow of those different paints in different proportions and stop and start them individually with the radio control hand device; it’s a custom-built apparatus for painting. I throw it in to orbit and let it spin and go back and forth. This painting (Interview) is concentric, with different spacing and direction of the pendulum throwing the paint patterns from the ceiling.

 

FIVE MINUTES WITH JAY ZUKERKORN

 

Art Zealous: Currently reading?

Jay Zukerkorn: The Magus.

 

AZ: Please describe your aesthetic in 3 words.

JZ: Lyrical, abstract, & lush

 

AZ: Your series Movement Disorder began as a response to your diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease. Please tell us about the series.

JZ: Early in the process of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s I went to see a movement disorder specialist.  That title stuck with me and I began to play with idea of how movement disrupts the order of an image. As the years passed and my tremor progressed, the movement became more natural and the results much more personal.  In the summer of 2014 I began work on a series inspired by my memories of growing up in Hawaii.  The images were first shown earlier this year at Waterhouse & Dodd and aptly titled “Movement Disorder.”

 

Exhibition Details:

Partnering with Team Fox, the Foundation’s grassroots fundraising arm, a portion of the sales from the exhibition will go directly to Parkinson’s research efforts.

Waterhouse & Dodd 960 Madison Avenue, 2FL New York, NY 10021

December 10, 2015 – January 9, 2016

About The Michael J Fox Foundation: The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease,  a progressive degenerative neurological disorder that affects more than 5 million people worldwide.