Zan Zeller — Deep Red Press

Zan Zeller is an artist based in Houston, Texas and currently serves as Assistant Director at Koslov Larsen (formerly Foto Relevance), a gallery space exhibiting contemporary art with an emphasis on photography-based work. They received a BA in Art History and Visual & Dramatic Arts with a concentration in Film/Photography from Rice University. While at Rice, Zan served as the Director of Inferno Gallery (formerly Matchbox), Rice’s student-run art gallery. Under their directorship, the gallery exhibited shows from local Houston and Texas-based artists as well as from students in Rice’s arts department. Zan was one of the inaugural recipients of the Joan Hohlt and Roger Wich Emerging Photographer Scholarship at the Houston Center for Photography from 2019-2020. Zan’s curatorial work centers on providing platforms for queer and marginalized artists, while their own photo-based work investigates experimental printing media, art historical and religious context, and queer identity as divine expression.

RR: Hello Zan, it's great to have you on here. We’ve known each other in passing for some time and I’ve always wanted to know more about your curatorial practice. Its nice to get a perspective from someone doing this professionally and I thought it would be great for our audience to hear about the process that goes beyond photographing. So thank you! You’ve been the Assistant Director at Foto Relevance, now Koslov Larsen, since 2019 but before we dive into that world, could you share a bit about your personal journey and what led you to become the AD of Koslov Larsen?

ZZ: Absolutely, and thanks so much for inviting me to speak with you, Raul. I started out studying photography and art history at Rice University just down the road, after initially planning to study astrophysics – it was a big turn, but it made a lot of sense to me and I’ve never regretted it. I ended up at Koslov Larsen a few months after graduating while also working part time at a ceramics shop. They brought me on as the gallery assistant – we were a small team of four, and I worked very closely with everyone learning a little of everything, and then a lot of everything. It wasn’t until at least a year in that I finally felt like I had a good grasp on all the moving parts of keeping a gallery running. In 2021, our previous Assistant Director, Erica Cheung, moved on to pursue graduate studies, and I was promoted to her position. In a funny way, my job didn’t change that drastically – the gallery keeps everyone on the team involved in pretty much all aspects of the business, so it’s a great learning experience even from the start. I’ve had the chance to plan exhibitions, bring in new artists, write for the gallery and separately for our artists, travel to art fairs, and get connected with institutions and people I would never have met otherwise. I really enjoy working with such a tight-knit team. Bryn and Geoffrey, the gallery co-owners, have supported me in all my endeavors and pushed me to grow in the areas that I love working in most.

*Quarantine Blues, June 20 – August 8, 2020, Koslov Larsen*

*Ebb + Flow, March 29 - July 29, 2021, Kinzelman Art Consulting and Koslov Larsen, TC Energy Center*

RR: Can you take us behind the scenes and share what personally inspires and guides your decisions when choosing photographers and themes to feature in the gallery? How have those decisions changed over time?

ZZ: I’m looking at so much more art each day than I was when I started out here – getting to see so many different styles, processes, and interests keeps the work engaging. There’s always exciting art to uncover, whether from emerging artists or established ones I just haven’t come across yet. The gallery itself is largely focused on process – as a team, we tend to be attracted to art that’s doing something a bit outside the box. Koslov Larsen has historically been focused on photo-based art. We’re very careful to refer to it that way, because while we do show some traditional photography, we really gravitate to work that subverts expectations of the medium. Working in photo, I sometimes hear feedback from viewers that feel like photography is stagnant, the “well I could do that, it’s just a photo” crowd. On the one hand, part of the beauty of photography is its accessibility, truly anyone can be a photographer. On the other hand, we are so inundated with images all day from screens that straight photography can certainly become monotonous. Photography that is altered to become sculptural, to jump out of the frame and into the viewer’s space, or that incorporates other media in exciting ways can break through and really engage a viewer.

I’ve been lucky to work with a team whose tastes often align with my own. Final decisions for work that appears in the gallery always come down from the co-owners, but I’m always happy to have a hand in researching and bringing in new artists. One of the limitations of working in a commercial gallery is that the very bottom line of any decision is do we have a market for this work. There are so many artists who I would love to have in our program that sometimes we just don’t have the right market for, and so I’m not able to work with them in this capacity. That being said, I’m always hopeful that we can push into new markets where I can be a bit more flexible with curation. I’m very interested in work that investigates marginalized histories, untold stories, and connections between the past and present. I think a lot about time – I’m looking to the past a lot, but I feel it’s only strengthened my hope for the future. Although I studied photography and began my own artistic practice in it, I find that I gravitate more to non-photographic works, or works that are not strictly photographic. Textile has been so popular the past few years, and I see very little textile work that doesn’t interest me. Since the gallery rebranded from Foto Relevance to Koslov Larsen, we’ve opened the door to showing broader media. I’m hoping to take advantage of that and see what fresh new work I can bring in.

*The Body as Memory, Jan 15 - March 19, 2022, Koslov Larsen*

RR: I understand that viewpoint. I have started to discover the notion of sculpture within my own practice in order to, like you said, “jump out of the frame.” Given the expanding possibilities within the photo medium, how do you see the boundaries being pushed, and what role do you think new, or old, technologies might play in shaping the future of photographic art?

zz: As I mentioned, I’m so often in love with pieces of the past. I love seeing traditional art forms and processes reemerge in new and subversive ways. Photography itself isn’t so old of a medium, but it can be integrated into just about any other process in some way.

Obviously, it’s hard to discuss the future of photography right now without touching on the rise of AI generated images. I’ve been very diligently avoiding interacting with AI content as much as possible – I even scroll away from TikTok videos that use AI filters. It feels silly sometimes, but I can’t help but feel how inauthentic it all is. Although I see some artists and patrons excited to explore its possibilities, I’m happy to see an equal if not stronger push toward work that really shows evidence of the artist’s hand. I think this is parallel to why viewers enjoy work that goes beyond a straight image – if images can be faked or generated with such accuracy now, the presence of a person behind the camera is no longer guaranteed and can feel absent even in real photographs. Fine art made with tedious, time consuming processes exalts the hand of the artist, makes it clear in every stitch, cut, stroke. I’m personally very interested in seeing this resurgence of craft, of people looking far into our past and carrying on legacies of creation in opposition to empty, meaningless rows of pixels.

RR: The physicality of photography is definitely expanding. I'm not sure how much longer we will be able to transmute through the digital/flat/2 dimensional plane. Which is a terrifying but exciting notion.

zz: I suppose that depends largely on the direction that our digital world takes – I can’t say I’m the most excited with the direction it feels like it’s heading right now, but I could just be a skeptic. With the rate that technology develops, it’s possible that the form of digital photographs could change completely in the next decades, or alter to the point that it’s no longer recognizable as photography. We’ll adapt, as we always do – as long as we can get the hang of the new tech. I’ve heard that you and I are from the most technologically literate generation, obviously more so than our predecessors but, surprisingly, also more than the younger generations. An interesting byproduct of growing up while the Internet, smartphones, and computers grew into their current form. I’m hoping this adaptability sticks, although, if the world starts looking any more like a 1980s dystopian sci fi film, you’ll find me going back to my roots. But seriously, I’m hoping there is a path forward for the preservation of our artistic heritage even while we’re quickly advancing – this current digital dark age is just one more reason to move our flat, digital images into the three-dimensional space, give them form, and better ensure that our art survives long after we are gone.

RR: As a curator you navigate relationships, communication, and interactions. What kind of advice would you offer to photographers, photographic artists, lens based media artists etc. to position themselves for the paradigm shift? I'm asking these questions both in the professional sense and artistic practice sense.

zz: Build up that adaptability. Experiment as much as you can, any and all processes, media, and concepts that you’re even mildly interested in, see what sticks and what viewers resonate with most. The most exciting part of creating is the discovery, not necessarily the end result. Sometimes things that are very exciting to you as an artist are not as engaging to viewers, and that’s okay – not every body of work needs to be exhibited, or monetized, some things are more meaningful if they’re just for you. Constantly engaging with other art, text, and ideas is the best way to expand your own concepts. Being in conversation with other artists and art workers is rewarding in building community as well as connections. I think the strongest bodies of work are the ones that engage the community foremost and the individual second.

In a similar vein, get comfortable talking about the nitty gritty details of your work – look at it from all angles, get outside perspectives, and try to ask yourself the hard questions about it and ask others how they react to those ideas as well. Be open to growth, to changing aspects of the work if you can’t find a way to resolve or at least address those questions. Being able to very clearly explain and adeptly discuss your own work is so important to how it is received by curators/gallerists and viewers.

RR: Thanks for chatting with me Zan and giving us some insight into the inner workings of the photo exhibition production. I look forward to your curatorial work in and beyond gallery settings.

zz: Thanks so much for taking the time, Raul, it’s been a pleasure. I’m equally excited to continue following your work in the art world, in any direction it takes you.

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