Garry Zeck, born 1941 in Perth WA, has lived and worked around Western Australia all his life.
He was educated at Hale School, Havelock Street, West Perth and his early art tutors included Robert Juniper and Owen Garde.
While teaching art at Kalgoorlie College in the late eighties, Garry received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Edith Cowan University.
Zeck’s early development in the arts was an extension of parents who were creative in their own ways. His father Walter Zeck, worked as a hairdresser, wigmaker & photographer whilst his mother Bonnie Zeck was a pianist and composer. Being able to draw was a fundamental attribute in his era and this skill has been a great foundation to exploring and consolidating ideas ever since.
Garry Zeck commenced his artistic career with his first exhibition in 1967. Since then he has exhibited on a regular basis, winning a number of awards along the way. The ceramic experience began in 1974 with a year’s Residency at Fremantle Art Centre and now shares equal place with his painting and drawing.
Over fifty solo exhibitions and numerous group shows later, Zeck’s work is represented in the State and National Galleries, Shire collections and too many private collections and homes to list. Zeck has also taught ceramics, and drawing and painting at a number of teaching institutions and conducted numerous workshops all over the state. Thirty years of ceramics alongside half a century of painting and drawing have produced a diverse and fascinating journey.
His work is immediately recognisable and extremely engaging. It is apparent from perusing Zeck’s work that oriental aesthetics have been a major influence on his ceramics and drawing. His sense of space, brushwork and carved decoration have their origins in China and Japan but his inspiration is definitely Australian. Much of his work draws on the Australian landscape for decorative motifs and processes.
Zeck is a master of his art. He engages in conversation with clay on a daily basis and creates artwork tempered by years of experimentation and experience. He knows the nuances of time and technique which allow him to manipulate and shape his material into diverse forms and images. He is inventive and he applies his inventiveness with relish. He makes his own clay, his own kilns and his own tools. This gives him an edge where he can further express his ideas with uniqueness. If he wants a particular response or mark, he simply makes a tool to achieve it. This inventiveness is inherent in the diversity of his creations and allied with his knowledge of clay, he is able to explore his ideas and express them with a freedom exceptional in ceramic practice.
Zeck is an impressionist. His images and shapes have an immediacy about them. They are spontaneous and gestural, generous and engaging. His pleasure comes from setting his ideas free, free from the gravity of material and technique, free to dance and enthral us with his passion. He invites us to experience his journey and ultimately, to set our spirits free.
“The authentic journey is a journey from the heart. To be an artist is to experience that journey every day, to ask what I want to say with my art and how the materials I use are going to contribute to this expression.”
Garry Zeck