DW Zinsser: Good Grief – Opening Reception

Exhibition: March 22 – April 26 2025
Gallery Hours: Saturdays & Sundays 12-4 pm
92 Central Ave. Tarrytown, NY 10591
PeepSpace presents Good Grief, an exhibition of work by DW Zinsser that explores the physical manifestations of grief, trauma, and resilience through large-scale drawings and found object installations.
Zinsser combines intricate pen and ink stippling with gestural watercolor to create amorphous, fleshy figures that serve as vessels for exploring the boundary between resilience and collapse. These meticulously rendered bodies—cramped in strained poses and adorned with tumorous flesh—become living altars, cluttered with offerings that perch and dangle from their limbs.
Zinsser elaborates, “I use humor and kitsch as coping mechanisms for the shame retained within the queer body. My practice reflects on the effects of gender dysphoria and addiction within the queer community.”
Elaborate shrines constructed from discarded objects that the artist has collected over years—plastic remnants, orange syringe caps, fishing lures, candle sticks, and wilting flowers reimagined as relics of memory and longing– accompany the drawings. The maximalist assemblages of salvaged materials glorify excess while also considering the lifecycle of sacred spaces—how they are constructed, deteriorate, and ultimately evolve into new forms.
By externalizing anxieties harbored within the body, Good Grief begins to purge fear and make way for transformation. The artist implements symbolic imagery such as grapes, fried eggs, and shrimp cocktail as bountiful offerings to moments of grief—using the arrangement of collected objects to compartmentalize and control the environment. While acknowledging the agony of loss and chaos, Zinsser suggests that profound compassion can emerge from grief’s discomfort.
DW Zinsser is a New York City based artist. They studied drawing and printmaking at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and are currently an MFA candidate in the Art Practice program at the School of Visual Arts. They’ve had solo exhibitions at Harkawik, Los Angeles; Essex Flowers, New York; and The Living Gallery in Brooklyn, among others. They’ve had numerous residencies, including SHIFT, at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York; Stonehouse Residency, Saylorsburg, PA; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency, Governors Island, New York; and the Walkaway House Residency, North Adams, MA.
The compulsive collection and hoarding of found objects such as syringe caps, plastic foods and baby toys act as a principle of organization and control within their practice. Their research into the overdose epidemic has rooted their work and its subjects as archetypes within a larger narrative about addiction and how it affects the queer community.