DW Zinsser is a visual artist living and working in New York City.
My work deals with the resilience of the queer body, by creating large scale drawings which incorporate gestural watercolor painting involving meticulous stippling, constructing and morphing tumorous, amorphous beings that are genderless and ageless. Whilst unformed and infantile, they are also wrinkled and decaying. My work glorifies excess by illustrating piles of trash, dangling totems of plastic discarded objects, mounds of flesh, employing symbolic objects and absurd grotesque characters as offerings that accumulate into a cluttered shrine to grief. Humor and kitsch are embedded within the practice serving as coping mechanisms for the shame retained within the body in reference to the mundane aspects of addiction during late stage capitalism. Compulsive collecting and hoarding of found objects such as syringe caps, plastic foods and baby toys act as a principle of organization and control within the practice. My research into the overdose epidemic has rooted the work and the subjects as archetypes within the larger narrative about addiction and how it affects the queer community.
Education: Bachelor in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, 2011
Masters in Fine Arts from School of Visual Arts, 2024
Solo Exhibitions:
2022: Tender Shepherd, Harkawik, Los Angeles CA
2021: Guilt Quilt: Yucking my Yum, Essex Flowers, New York NY
2016: Come Home, Flowers for all Occasions Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2015: These Hands, Superchief Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2014: You Are Pink, The Living Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Hocked, Gawked, Chicken Pocked, Happy Fun Hideaway, Brooklyn NY
Group Exhibitions:
2025: Echo Locator, Field Projects, Online
2024: Precarity and Possibility, SVA Flatiron Gallery, New York NY
Environmental Coy, The Yard, Brooklyn NY
Person, Place or Thing, Project Gallery, Online
2023: Faces and Places, Dodomu Gallery, Online
Interwoven Souls: United in Loneliness, Sotheby’s Institute, New York, NY
To All My Friends: Call Me By Name, The Yard, Brooklyn NY
Afield, Bubbi’s Ranch, Hudson NY
Inimitable, Project Gallery V, Online
Hive Mind, Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn NY
Open Call 2023, MePaintsMe Gallery, Online
Inimitable, Project Gallery V, Online
NYC Crit Club/Plum Lime Residency, MePaintsMe Gallery, Online
Five Year Anniversary Show, Moisturizer Gallery, Gainesville FL
2022: Satellite Art Fair, Miami Art Basel, Miami FL
70th Street, Colnaghi Gallery, New York NY
Moist and Wet Places, Moisturizer Gallery, Gainesville FL
2021: Out of the Office, Collar Works, Troy NY
The Frog Show, Real Pain, New York NY
So Gathering Seems Essential, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn NY
Recollections, Bend Gallery, Chicago IL
Tactile Sublime, Dodomu Gallery, Brooklyn NY
BWAC Print Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition, Brooklyn NY
Petersburg Hanging, Tanja Grunert Gallery, Hudson NY
2020: Pen Pal Art Show, Lei Min Space, Los Angeles CA
2019: Damaged Art, 88 Orchard, New York NY
2017: Froth of the Liquid Jade, The Glove, Brooklyn NY
Nightwood Drag Show, Situations, New York NY
Satellite Art Show, Miami Art Basel, Miami FL
2016: Liquid Dreams, Flowers for all Occasions, Brooklyn NY
Plant Sale, Rabbithole Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Rainbow Underwater, Flowers for all Occasions, Brooklyn NY
2015: Strange Girls Never Die, CE Exhibits, Minneapolis MN
A Ripening Home, Tarot Society, Brooklyn NY
Not Another Group Show, Superchief Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2014: Small Worlds of the Claiming Moon, Signal Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Head Shop, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn NY
Crystal Moon Womb, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn NY
2013: Blaq Cherry Moon, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn NY
Noodle Beaches for Meeting Witches; Chapter V, Fitness Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Noodle Beaches for Meeting Witches; Chapter IV, Signal Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Noodle Beaches for Meeting Witches; Chapter III, NYU, New York NY
2012: Noodle Beaches for Meeting Witches; Chapter II
Noodle Beaches for Meeting Witches, Great Buffalo, Brooklyn NY
Printmaking Thesis Show, Schafler Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Publications: Looking for you, Zine published by Du-Good Press, 2021
Residencies:
2025: SHIFT Residency, Elizabeth Foundations for the Arts, New York, NY
2024: Canopy Program, New York, NY
Stonehouse Residency, Saylorsburg, PA
2023: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency, Governors Island, NY
2022: Walkaway House Residency, North Adams, MA
2021: Arts, Letters & Numbers, Pilot Light Residency, Averill Park, NY
2020: Welcome Hill Studios, Chesterfield, NH