Zac Greening

Price range: £500 - £6600

 

Zac graduated from Reading University in 1991 with a BA hons in Agricultural Economics. At that time Zac's passion was to work overseas in the field of agricultural extension. From 1993 - 1995 Zac went to South America and ended up in Seattle where he began working for Greenpeace.

Returning from Seattle with a job lined up as a farm manager in Tanzania. In the nine months before that was due to begin Zac started to use this time to experiment with some of his artistic ideas. Within six months Zac realised that art was his true metier in life and he has been working as an artist ever since.

Over the next few years [1996-1999], Zac designed and manufactured window displays for the likes of Monsoon, Jigsaw, Viyella and Kookai to name but a few. From here, Zac saw and opportunity to merge art with advertising and subsequently set about working with advertising agencies and brands, including Audi, BMW, Jaguar, T mobile and Sony, to develop this idea.

In recent years, Zac has been commissioned to create pieces for BP and Speedo as well as working with a host of architects and interior designers. In 2006, Zac won the Green Award and was runner up for ‘Best of Show' for his illumination of wind turbines at Delabole wind farm in Cornwall.

Also in 2006, Zac set up The Earth Energy Project. The project comprises outdoor installations and photographic prints which abstractly expresses our connection with nature. The narrative surrounding these works centers on ecological sustainability. The project took him in 2007 to create pieces in South Africa as well as being commissioned by the Gallman Foundation to make an ultraviolet wind sculpture in Kenya's Rift Valley. Zac is currently in talks with the Eden Project to create similar veined pieces there in 2010.

The body of work seen here, entitled ‘Connectivity', and is inspired by nature. Zac feels that Nature in its most basic form comprises energy, rather like food and calories. It is this energy that Zac is wishing to express, albeit abstractly, in this body of work. He also feels we are inextricably linked to this energy economically, socially and spiritually.

Whilst making this work, Zac was very aware of our ever increasing appetite and consumption of our natural environment's resources. All this, seemingly, in pursuit of an unsustainable short-term gain. As a result of this exploitation, Zac feels we are becoming divorced from nature. Zac's idea was to fuse the mediums used, manmade with organic, hence mirroring this symbiotic relationship that man has with the natural environment.

Zac hopes that this body of work will inspire the viewer and remind him/her of nature's brilliance and ultimately our connection to it.

 

Commissioned works include:

Harrods B  - Design of pillar sculptures for 'Way In' department, November 98

BMW - August 96. Launch of five series. Flagship showrooms around the country.

Jigsaw - March 97. Spring collection. Window displays for 32 stores.

Monsoon - October 97. Autumn collection. Window displays for 85 stores.

Jezoray - December 97. Christmas windows for all eight stores.

Coates Viyella - January 98. Winter collection. Window displays for all 25 stores.

Topman - January 98. Oxford Circus. 5m x 8m wall hanging.

Kookai - June 98. Summer collection. Window displays for 28 stores.

Dorothy Perkins - October 98. Flagship store, Birmingham. Three 6m x 1m copper hangings.

Harrod's - November 98. Design of pillar sculptures for ‘Way In' department.

DP Media - July 98. 4ft x 3ft copper wall sculpture. Entitled - ‘Colours of the Sea'.

Lord & Lady Buxton - July 2003, 2004, 2005. UV wind sculptures. Entitled - ‘Connectivity'.

Abbey House Gardens - August 2003. Kinetic river sculpture mobile.

British Film Institute - August 2003. UV wind sculpture for short film.

Big Chill LTD - August 2004. 15m x 4m x 1m UV wind sculpture.

Speedo - 2005. Three kinetic sculpture light works. Entitled  - ‘Splash'.

B.P. - 2005. Four kinetic, mixed media sculptures. Entitled - ‘A Journey through Power'.

Good Energy - August 2006. Nine wind turbines illuminated.

Eden Project - August 2006. Kinetic sculpture light box.

Gallman Foundation, Kenya - February 2007. UV wind sculpture. Entitled - ‘Connectivity III'.

 

Exhibitions

Promax Awards, London - November 2000. Sculptural light boxes.

John Jones Art Gallery, London - 2001. Group show. Seven artists.

Saatchi and Saatchi, London - December 2001. Solo show. London.

Twist, Oxo Gallery, London - April 2002. Group show. Eight artists.

Plus One Plus Two Galleries, London - August 2002. Group show. Four artists.

Catto Contemporary, London - November 2003. Solo show - ‘Light transformation'.

Ashurst Morris Crisp, London - June 2004. Group show.

Bramon Vineyard, S. Africa - March 2007. Solo show.

Islington Art Fair, Robert Bowman Gallery. Jan 2008.

Robert Bowman Modern. Solo Show. April 2008

 

Awards

Green Awards - 2006. Winner of Best Outdoor Advertisement for Under £100K. Runner-up for Best In Show. Illumination of Delabole Wind Farm. Commissioned by Good Energy.