Leonovich Gallery EXhibits John Zieman's "Weaponized Beauty", curated by , Elga Wimmer Febuary 20-March 7, 2026
John Zieman, SPTE (Serenely Precise Target Extraction), video still mounted on aluminum, 9” x 50”, 2026
JOHN ZIEMAN
February 20 – March 7, 2026
Curated by Elga Wimmer
Leonovich Gallery is pleased to announce a show of video works and stills by New York-based artist John Zieman, Weaponized Beauty, from February 20 to March 7, with an opening reception, Thursday February 19, 6-8 pm.
John Zieman has been making video art since the late 1970’s, works that captured the zeitgeist of that experimental and psychedelic age, in their use of abstract imagery and special effects, edited to music. This predated the familiar aesthetics of MTV (Music Television), combining modern technology and popular music.
Zieman composes all the music in his videos, including the lyrics, and takes on all directorial duties in every minutia, down to his hands on editing, leaving nothing to chance.
This show takes its title from his video of the same name, Weaponized Beauty, 2012, whereby images are projected onto the gallery wall as a three-channel screening that juxtaposes pristine nature—at risk of extinction—with human habitat, arguably at risk of extinction as well. The two-channel video work OTOH (On The Other Hand), 2026, transports these concepts into our present time, juxtaposing animals in danger of extinction with otherworldly beautiful oceans and landscapes.
Inspired by Musique Concrete, a practice of composing music using sounds from nature, rather than man made musical instruments, Zieman affects a sense of impending existential doom, environmental catastrophe. Earlier works tap into everyday stories, with a clin d’oeil to Film Noir. Over the years Zieman has collaborated with other notable video artists of the era, in particular, Nam Jun Paik and Dara Birnbaum.
In his piece, TS3 (Time Suite 3), 2010, we see layered portraits of various protagonists, alone and sometimes as couples, whose bodies are covered with text written by Zieman, which appear as moving tattoos on skin. There is a certain melancholic undercurrent prevalent here, as the models exude a robotic like quality, in their stillness. When they move at all, it is in highly controlled, rhythmic gestures.
The stills mounted in diptychs and triptychs on aluminum were taken from videos in the show, with text that appears like captions at the end of a movie. Except that here they serve as a final oracle, if you will, a thinly guised warning of what could be waiting around the corner.
LEONOVICH GALLERY
520 W. 24th Street, New York, NY 10011 • 212.204.7150 • leonovich.gallery@gmail.com • leonovichgallery.com
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