The Bulletin Board: Zach Houston

‘All/Most of the Poems I Haven’t Sold Since 2005-2009’

White Columns is proud to present the first New York solo project by the Oakland-based artist Zach Houston.

Houston’s installation in The Bulletin Board project space consists of an accumulation of recent typed poem-works. Houston will also be present at the exhibition’s opening reception on March 10, from 6-8 pm creating new typed poetry works as part of an ongoing performative work called ‘The Poem Store.’

In a recent statement Houston elaborates on his project:

“My focus is primarily on language and trope. … I operate a performance / literature / business / art piece informally referred to as The Poem Store, a project that consists of selling spontaneous free verse composed on a manual typewriter at public events. …

Houston also recently offered a list of artists and writers – and territories – whose work intersects with his, including: “… vaneigem/situationists, gertrude stein, kenneth patchen’s novels, brautigan, aram saroyan, jarry, glossolalia, wilhelm reich, christian bok, transhumanism, dada, space migration, paul laffoley, darger and the book about clouds, terence mckenna, mark lombardi, california, kenneth goldsmith, lighght, john cage, buckminster fuller, marshall mcluhan, totality, singularity, et al.”

Zach Houston’s project will be the fourth presentation in White Columns’ ongoing and occasional ‘Poetry Project’ series which seeks – in an informal manner – to consider the persistent entanglements between the visual art and poetry worlds. Previous ‘Poetry Project’ installations have included presentations by Tim Griffin, Karl Holmqvist, and Malcolm Mooney.

Zach Houston lives and works in Oakland, CA. He has exhibited his poem works and drawings since 2005. He studied at Sonoma State University between 2000 and 2005. He had a solo exhibition ‘Sad, Little, Quiet Psychotopography’ at Johansson Projects, Oakland in 2009. Group exhibitions include: ‘Communication Breakdown’, Edlin Gallery, New York and Galerie Impaire, Paris (2008); ‘Location, Location, Location’, Creative Growth Gallery, Oakland; and ‘Oakland, an East Side Story’, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francsico (2006), amongst others. For more information visit: zachhouston.com