{{short description|American painter (born 1956)}}
{{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=November 2015}} {{Cleanup|reason=too many works, etc listed|date=November 2015}} {{Lead too short|date=November 2015}}}}
{{Infobox person | name = John Zurier | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1956}} | birth_place = Santa Monica, California, United States | movement = Abstract | website = {{URL|www.johnzurier.com}} | education = University of California, Berkeley | known_for = Painting }}
'''John Zurier''' (born 1956) is an American abstract painter, known for his minimal, near-monochrome paintings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nordenhake.com/artists/john-zurier|title=John Zurier|website=nordenhake.com|access-date=2019-07-10}}</ref> His work has shown across the United States as well as in Europe and Japan. He has worked in Reykjavik, Iceland and Berkeley, California. Zurier lives in Berkeley, California.
==Education== John Zurier was born in 1956 in Santa Monica, California.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Zurier CV |url=https://www.johnzurier.com/cv |website=johnzurier.com |access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref>
He received a BA degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}
==Career and exhibition== Zurier's work has been shown in galleries and museums since 1980. Zurier was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial in New York City,<ref>{{cite web|title=Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 2002|url=http://whitney.org/www/2002biennial/artists.html|publisher=Whitney.org|access-date=2015-11-27}}</ref> the 2008 Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea, 2008 |url=http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/gb/past/intro/?no=7&mode=view&BN_IDX=56 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028132703/http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/gb/past/intro/?no=7&mode=view&BN_IDX=56 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-10-28 |publisher=Gwangjubiennale.org |access-date=2015-11-27 }}</ref> and the 2012 São Paulo Art Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil.
==Style and technique== thumb|200px|John Zurier, ''Héraðsdalur 3'', 2014-15, Oil on linen, {{cvt|22+1/16|x|24+13/16|in|cm}}Zurier paints abstract, near-monochrome paintings whose colors range from muted tones to vibrant hues.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal|last1=Feldman |first1=Melissa |title=John Zurier, Gallery Paule Anglim |journal=Frieze |date=September 2009 |issue=125 |url=http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/john_zurier/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208072509/http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/john_zurier/ |archive-date=2015-12-08 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ebony|first1=David|date=May 12, 2015|title=John Zurier at Peter Blum|url=http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/john-zurier/|journal=Art in America}}</ref> Zurier's abstract paintings are informed by abstract expressionism, Post-War French painting, and Japanese aesthetics. His main interest is in simplicity, surface modulation, and color, as those are tied to people's experience of time.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Stopa|first1=Jason|title=Ambiguity as Strength: A Conversation with John Zurier|journal=Art in America|date=April 5, 2018|url=https://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/interviews/ambiguity-strength-conversation-john-zurier/}}</ref> Zurier's reductive paintings show his dedication to color, the material fact of painting, and the history of painting. His soft-hued abstract paintings play at crossing the line into representation with the sensation of nature, the silence of luminous weather, and the human touch. Capturing qualities of light and weather effects,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bateman|first1=Henry|title=Memories in the Landscape|journal=The Ex Expat|date=March 14, 2015|url=http://auspat.blogspot.com/2015/03/memories-in-landscape.html?_sm_au_=i5Vs6kQ7PZD0DMSH}}</ref> Zurier employs a range of brushstrokes and surface treatments,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sultan|first1=Altoon|title=John Zurier: Poetic Reticence|journal=Studio and Garden|date=February 24, 2015|url=http://altoonsultan.blogspot.com/2015/02/john-zurier-poetic-reticence.html}}</ref> varying from revealing the texture of the canvas or obscuring it with layers of thick impasto.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Hamlin|first1=Jesse|title=John Zurier Captures Joy in Fields of Color|url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/John-Zurier-Captures-Joy-in-Fields-of-Color-2935147.php'|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=April 4, 2001|page=C2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Ray|first1=Eleanor|title=John Zurier at Peter Blum|url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2015/03/artseen/john-zurier|work=The Brooklyn Rail|date=March 5, 2015}}</ref> Zurier's work has been described as transcending the gestural and material to evoke the emotional.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Baker|first1=Kenneth|title=Painting as decoration, agitation or just a futile expression|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/18/DDGA7D9MF01.DTL&hw=john+zurier&sn=001&sc=1000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208150244/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/18/DDGA7D9MF01.DTL&hw=john+zurier&sn=001&sc=1000|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 8, 2015|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=June 18, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Baker|first1=Kenneth|title=John Zurier, Paintings and Watercolors|url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/john-zurier-paintings-and-watercolors-review-2326046.php|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=October 22, 2011}}</ref> While minimal, Zurier's practice is not minimalist, but rather composed of quiet works that focus on the structure and possibilities of a brushstroke. “I think the Japanese painter Ike No Taiga [1723–1776] was right,” Zurier has said, “the most difficult thing to achieve in painting is creating a space where absolutely nothing has been painted.”<ref>{{cite web|title=John Zurier: Artist's Statement|url=http://www.johnzurier.com/about1.html|website=johnzurier.com|date=January 2008}}</ref><ref>{{YouTube | id= svESq_iKwp8 | title= Artist John Zurier in Berlin}}</ref>
==Public collections== *Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *Microsoft Corporation Art Collection, Redmond, Washington, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *University of California, San Francisco Art Collection, San Francisco, California, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} *Principia College, Elsah, Illinois, U.S.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}
==Exhibitions== ;Selected solo exhibitions *[http://bergcontemporary.is/exhibitions/john-zurier-sometimes-over-me-the-mountain/''John Zurier: Sometimes (Over Me the Mountain), BERG Contemporary, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2018''] *[https://nordenhake.com/exhibitions/2018/john-zurier''»A Mind of Winter«, Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, Germany, 2018''] *[http://www.peterblumgallery.com/exhibitions/starswithoutdistance''Stars Without Distance, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY, 2017''] *[http://theclub.tokyo/en/exhibitions/at-the-very-end-of-the-blue-sky/''At the Very End of the Blue Sky, The Club, Tokyo, Japan, 2017''] *[http://anglimgilbertgallery.com/john-zurier-dust-and-troubled-air/#ms-4355''Dust and Troubled Air, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2017''] *[http://www.officebaroque.com/exhibitions/106/john-zurier-the-last-summer-light#images''John Zurier - The Last Summer Light, Office Baroque, Brussels, Belgium, 2016''] *[https://nordenhake.com/exhibitions/2016/east''East, Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, Germany, 2016''] *[https://nordenhake.com/exhibitions/2015/between-north-and-night''Between North and Night, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden, 2015''] *[http://www.peterblumgallery.com/exhibitions/john-zurier3/selected-works''West of the Future, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY, 2015''] *John Zurier: Matrix 255", Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, 2014 *John Zurier: Recent Paintings, Lawrence Markey, San Antonio, TX, 2014 *Knowledge is a blue naiveté, Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, Germany, 2013 *A spring a thousand years ago," Peter Blum Gallery, NY, 2013 *John Zurier: Watercolors," Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 2013 *John Zurier, Patrick de Brock Gallery, Knokke, Belgium, 2012 *John Zurier Paintings and Watercolors, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 2011 *White Paintings and Night Paintings, Peter Blum Chelsea, NY, 2010 *Nordic Paintings, Galería Javier López, Madrid, 2010 *John Zurier - New Paintings, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, June 2009 *John Zurier, Galeria Javier López, Madrid, Spain, 2007 *John Zurier: New Works, Peter Blum SoHo, New York, NY, 2007 *John Zurier: New Paintings, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 2005 *John Zurier: New Paintings, Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, 2005 *John Zurier, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, 2003 *John Zurier: Oblaka, Peer, London, 2003 *John Zurier, Gallery Paul Anglim, San Francisco, 2001 *John Zurier Paintings 1997–1999, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco (catalogue with interview by Lawrence Rinder), 2000 *John Zurier: Monotypes, Aurobora Press, San Francisco, CA, 1999 *John Zurier: Abstract Paintings, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 1994 *John Zurier: Monotypes, Concourse Gallery, Bank of America World Headquarters, San Francisco, CA, 1990 *John Zurier: New Paintings, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 1989 *John Zurier, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 1986 *John Zurier, Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, Santa Barbara, 1985 *John Zurier, Dana Reich Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1984 *John Zurier, Sun Gallery, Hayward, CA, 1984
;Selected group exhibitions *[http://nmartmuseum.org/site/exhibitions/current/be-with-me-a-small-exhibition-of-large-paintings.html''Be With Me, a Small Exhibition of Large Paintings, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, October 2016 - April 2017''] *[http://www.gallerypauleanglim.com/Press_Releases/Entries/2015/11/28_A_Studio_In_Iceland.html''A Studio In Iceland, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, CA, November 2015 - January 2016''] *[http://www.colby.edu/museum/exhibition/paper-trail-contemporary-prints-drawings-and-photographs-from-the-collection/''Paper Trail: Contemporary Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from the Collection, Colby College Museum of Art, 2015''] *[http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/sao_paulo_biennial/2012''30th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012''] *[http://www.jasonmccoyinc.com/bw_pg.html''Black and White, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY, 2010''] *[http://www.ocma.net/exhibition/2010-california-biennial''California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, 2010''] *[http://www.cheimread.com/exhibitions/2010-06-24_le-tableau''Le Tableau, Cheim and Read Gallery, New York, NY, 2010''] *[http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/galaxy''Galaxy: A Hundred or So Stars Visible to the Naked Eye, Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 2009''] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20150420221749/http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/gb/past/intro/?no=7&mode=view&BN_IDX=56 ''Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea, 2008''] *[http://www.minusspace.com/2007/05/selections-from-the-concrete-h-paxton-moore-fine-art-gallery-el-centro-college-dallas-tx/''Selections from the Concrete, El Centro College, Dallas, TX, 2007''] *[http://peterblumgallery.com/exhibitions/line-and-surface-works-on-paper/press_release''Line and Surface: Works on Paper, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY, 2006''] *[http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/events/exodus-between-promise-and-fulfilment/''Exodus: Between Promise and Fulfillment, curated by David Austin, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2003''] *[http://whitney.org/www/2002biennial/artists.html''Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 2002''] *Minimalism: Then and Now, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, 2001 *Practice and Process: New Painterly Abstraction in California, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena and the Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA, 1998 *Three Painters: Anne Appleby, Gregg Renfrow, John Zurier, Arts Benicia Center, Benicia, CA, 1996 *Donald Feasel, Philip Morsberger, John Zurier: Recent Paintings, Shasta College Gallery, Redding, CA, 1993 *Chain Reaction Six, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1990 *Sixteen Young Bay Area Artists, Colorado State University Art Gallery, Fort Collins, CO, 1988 *Expressive Abstraction, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA, 1986 *MFA/UCB/1984, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, 1984
==Monotype projects== *Aurobora Press, San Francisco, CA, 1998 and 2002 *Garner Tullis Workshop, Santa Barbara, CA, 1989–1990 *Garner Tullis Workshop, Emeryville, CA, 1985–1986
==Awards and teaching== *John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 2010<ref>{{cite web|title=John Zurier|website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/john-zurier/ |access-date=2024-06-05}}</ref> *PresentEminent Adjunct Professor, California College of the Arts, 2006<ref>{{cite web|title=John Zurier |website=California College of the Arts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702191341/https://www.cca.edu/academics/faculty/jzurier |archive-date=2016-07-02|url=https://www.cca.edu/academics/faculty/jzurier}}{{failed verification|date=June 2024}}</ref>
==Books, monographs and catalogs== *[https://www.peterblumgallery.com/publications/john-zurier''John Zurier: Paintings 1981-2014, (artist monograph), Essay by Robert Storr and foreword by Lawrence Rinder, 2015''] *2012 São Paulo Bienal, The Imminence of Poetics, (catalog), Luis Pérez-Oramas, Tobi Maier, André Severo, Isabela Villanueva, 2012 *Repeat After Me - Poems by Bill Berkson, Watercolors by John Zurier, Published by Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 2011 *2010 California Biennial: Orange County Museum of Art, (catalog), Sarah C. Bancroft, 2010 *To: Night (Contemporary Representations of the Night), (catalog), curated by Joachim Pissarro, Mara Hoberman, Julia Moreno, 2008 *The 7th Gwangju Biennial: 2008 Annual Report, (catalog), curated by Okwui Enwezor, et al., 2008 *John Zurier Night Paintings: 2007–2008, (catalog), Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, 2008 *Pope, Alexander, John Zurier: New Paintings, (catalog), Text from “The Essay on Man” San Francisco, CA: Gallery Paule Anglim, 2005 *EXODUS: Between Promise and Fulfillment, (catalog), Essay by Anthony Downey, Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, England, 2003 *Rinder, Lawrence, et al. Whitney Biennial 2002, (catalog), New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2002 *John Zurier Paintings 1997–1999, (catalog), Interview with Lawrence Rinder, San Francisco, CA: Gallery Paule Anglim, 2000 *Practice and Process: New Painterly Abstraction in California, (catalog), Armory Center for the Arts and the Richmond Art Center, Pasadena and Richmond, CA, 1998 *Abstraction Absolved: Ten Bay Area Painters, (catalog) Introduction by Keith Lachowicz, Oakland, CA: Mills College Art Gallery, 1996 *Garner Tullis Workshop: Monotypes, (catalog) Introduction by Memory Holloway, Praz/Vully, Switzerland, Galerie Au Poisson Rouge, 1986
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.johnzurier.com John Zurier: Artists’ website] *[http://anglimgilbertgallery.com/#ms-4374 Anglim Gilbert Gallery] *[http://www.peterblumgallery.com/ Peter Blum Gallery] *[http://www.nordenhake.com/ Galerie Nordenhake] *[http://www.lawrencemarkey.com/ Lawerence Markey Inc.] *[http://www.patrickdebrock.be/ Patrick De Brock Gallery] *[http://www.galeriajavierlopez.com/ Galeria Javier Lopez]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zurier, John}} <!--- Categories ---> Category:American abstract painters Category:American contemporary painters Category:20th-century American painters Category:20th-century American male artists Category:American male painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:21st-century American male artists Category:Painters from San Francisco Category:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:Living people Category:1956 births