Zerek Kempf’s work navigates the intersection of perception and reality, examining frameworks that shape knowledge, identity, and truth. Working primarily with video, Kempf stages his own body within sparse sets composed of found objects, computer-generated imagery, and apparitions offered by artificial intelligence. Drawing from the formal languages of minimalist sculpture and narrative filmmaking, he constructs realities that are sustained through action, observation, and belief.
Kempf’s pursuit extends to the liminal space between autonomy and restriction, where the limbo between agency and constraint becomes increasingly nuanced. His work questions the extent to which individuals influence their environment and the degree to which they are shaped by fundamental forces governing existence. Informed by cognitive science and philosophies of vision, his work embraces visual mechanics of deception, intersecting with the sleight-of-hand tactics of stage magic and the visceral risk of cinematic stunt work. These influences converge in his studio, a mutable space that becomes both site and stage where a few coats of paint, patience, and postproduction manipulation establish a limitless backdrop where the raw and the uncanny intertwine.
Spatial relationships and sequencing are central to Kempf’s approach, treating space and time as deeply entangled forces. By reconstructing these dimensions through staged performance, video editing, and digital intervention, his work links the enigma of time to the complexities of consciousness.
Kempf is based in Brooklyn, New York. He holds an MFA from the University of California, San Diego (2006) and a BFA from The Ohio State University (2003). He has participated in residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, Fountainhead, and the New York Art Residency & Studio Foundation. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; DeVos Art Museum, Marquette; Waag Society, Amsterdam; and CA2M Museum, Madrid.