Thesis Exhibition:  March 19 - March 22  

Reception: March 21, 2025, 5-8 pm

Inverted, 2024, reclaimed grate and tile, grout, epoxy, wood, projection, 44" x 24" x 12", Ari Zuaro  

Untitled, 2024, wood, ceramic, cedar shingles, grout, mirror, reclaimed roofing, tiles and metal grate, projection, 24" x 46" x 36", Ari Zuaro   

Artist Statement  

From the traces of things both built and found, my work points to how we might reconfigure or string together new ways of being from that which has been undervalued or disregarded. On my walks through Philadelphia’s Chinatown, a place I sought out as a site of connection, I began to consider the definition of reflection: the bouncing back of a body without absorption. While I cruise the streets noticing the debris, brick, rubble and skyscrapers I wonder how we might locate the edges of a site?

Through the use of virtual worlds, projection and collage, I build layers of image, texture, sound and light. Thinking through discarded construction materials, I arrange and assemble fragments, allowing for new possibilities of their existence. Through an “an-architectural” lens my work leans into the nature of collapse. I seek to capture the urgency–and reframe the messiness–of existing in a place. Collapse is also a means to engage in trans-ness. By this, I refer not simply to gender identity but instead to situating in between, and existing as possibility. It may be that at any given time we are only glimpsing each other in the various states of our collective becoming.

More information about Ari Zuaro at www.arizuaro.squarespace.com.  

All photos are credited to the artist.