Stadel has developed a practice of making work based on a reinterpretation of Kristeva’s theory of the abject. Using the abject not as a subject but as a method, to extend the categories that we might use to understand sculpture or painting. Creating ambiguity by exchanging the characteristics of one medium with another delays immediate recognition and understanding. Expectations are waylaid and cognitive divisions are breached, affecting what Kristeva described as the "uncertainty of structure and the uncertainty of identity.”



Zachary Stadel graduated from the Art Center College of Design MFA program in the fall of 2004, where he studied under a Jacob K. Javits Graduate Fellowship. He has exhibited in several group shows, including the recent Darkness and Light at the Armory Northwest in Pasadena.


Stadel has shown in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles.