Zak Ové

“Canboulay” | October 21 - November 20

High Line Nine is thrilled to welcome De Buck Gallery with “Canboulay,” artist Zak Ové’s debut exhibition with the gallery and his first since the gallery began representing the artist. The show will feature a new series of Ové’s beloved Doily Paintings, which are canvases laboriously created from found vintage pieces of crochet sourced “from everywhere” according to Ové.

The title of the show, Canboulay, refers to the festival that was the precursor to the Trinidad and Tobago carnival. Originally a harvest festival, at which drums, singing, dancing and chanting were an integral part, after Emancipation, it developed into an outlet and a festival for former indentured laborers and freed slaves who were banned from participating in the masquerade carnival events–derived from European Christian traditions–of the colonial elite. With titles such as Blue Devil and Baby Doll, each painting is inspired by and takes its name from a traditional carnival character. There’s a “balance between contrast, light and shapes,” says Ové about the process of creating these works. “It’s almost musical.” “Canboulay” will also be available online as part of the gallery’s virtual programming.