Fine Artist Zoë Buckman Explores Her Subjects In The Context of Home

With “Who By Fire,” Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Zoë Buckman makes her solo debut at Miami’s Mindy Solomon Gallery. Composed of nuanced portraiture born of textile and paint, the exhibition explores the intimacy of community, belonging, and mortality, all within domestic spaces, as the artist looks toward friends and family for inspiration and emotional resonance. It’s the latest of many milestones for the artist, who will soon see her first solo museum show, “Show Me Your Bruises, Then” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), and publish her first monograph, Thick Bleach & Euphemisms.

Buckman’s portraits begin with the selection of a source image from her portfolio of personal photography. “I go everywhere with a small film point-and-shoot—the Contax T3 I’ve had since art school,” she tells Surface. “I’m constantly capturing moments between loved ones in my life. My community and friends and family are a huge inspiration so when we’re out dancing or at home cooking or playing a game or whatever, my camera will be within reach.”

The artist organizes her imagery into series around moods, micro-moments, and transactions. “For example, for my show ‘BLOODWORK’ in 2022, I was selecting images of my girlfriends out dancing or exulting or praying. I was looking at fierce resilience,” she says. “For this series I’ve been more focused on tenderness and quiet introspection within the home.”

Upon committing to a moment, Buckman then selects a vintage textile from her fabric archive. “For this show, the canvases are mainly large used tablecloths, but there’s a pillowcase too. Then I’ll paint,” she explains of her ink and acrylic explorations. “Then I’ll sew. Then I may add appliqués. Then I’ll iron and send it off to be framed, or scrap it altogether if I don’t think the piece was successful.”

The tactility of each piece informs the experience of the scenes Buckman depicts within—lending nuance and dimension. “I’m not trying to shout a point with my work, I’m trying to start a conversation,” she says. “I want the work to literally draw people close. I want there to be an intimacy or relationship between the piece and the viewer, which is why it’s harder for my work to have the same effect online. There’s a big part of my work—and my goal in life and relationships also—which is about being seen in our complexity and holding multiple truths. That’s why texture and beauty and color are important to me when making work that also examines inequality, trauma, violence, having one’s power taken away.”

This is underscored by Buckman’s reflections upon the concept of home. “I think that for most of us, our relationships to the homes we’ve lived in are super-complicated,” she continues. “There’s of course the homes we grew up in—the most formative years where we first discover and play with the idea of who we are. For way too many, the home of their childhood was also a place of trauma. Then we move out and we start seeking and trying to create our own homes. We long for a place to retreat in, grow, create, perhaps procreate in. Then most of us experience some kind of heartbreak. There’s always grief and loss that we process in our homes.”

Buckman began working on the pieces within “Who By Fire” in 2023, for her previous gallery. When the show was cancelled, Buckman texted Solomon, whom she met at a woman’s luncheon at PAMM. “She instantly offered me the December Art Basel slot. Showing with a strong and proud Jewish woman has been such an enriching experience, but what I really appreciate about Mindy, is that she doesn’t see me as a ‘Jewish artist.’ She sees the long career I’ve had making work about my personal experiences in these bodies and relationships and spaces,” Buckman says.

For Buckman, the show’s intimacy comes from what’s occurring in the moments she depicts. “My kiddo sitting alone on my bed looking out of the window is more about that gesture and the pre-teen soup of emotion and isolation at play within the warmth, safety, and comfort of the mother’s bedroom,” she explains. “There are stuffed toys that indicate how childhood is not yet over—and in many ways is never over—and it’s about our relationship and a fleeting moment in time, which is seemingly drawn-out when you’re in it. I can’t deny though that there are certain people who I’ve depicted many times in my work, and it must be because I’m drawn not just to the moments captured but also to them, to who they are to me, or how they carry and express themselves.”