Working primarily in sculpture, installation, and drawing, Krebs is interested in how three-dimensional form, space, and material convey meaning. From researching archeological excavations to studying our place within ecosystems, the work is both personal and universal as she examines our relationship to time and the visual vocabulary inherent in both abstraction and representation. The subject matter is sometimes autobiographical but also represents life cycles, and processes of change, transformation, and transmutation. Ambiguity and mystery layered in the past, the present, and the future are intriguing and compelling as are dualities, contrasts, and the spaces in between. Are things growing or decaying? Alive or dead? Old or new? Or both? She finds comfort in the impermanence, the endless change, and the unknown.
Exploring life cycles on macro and micro scales, from seasonal shifts to geological epochs and cosmological events, Krebs explores the ephemeral nature of our existence and the natural phenomena that keep us grounded. She works with a broad range of media from stone to built installations using light, lasers, audio, video projections, and other sculptural and sensory materials. Isamu Noguchi writes in his autobiography, A Sculptor’s World, that “the natural mediums of wood and stone, alive before man was, have the greater capacity to comfort us with the reality of our being. They are as familiar as the earth, a matter of sensibility. In our times we think to control nature, only to find that in the end it escapes us.” Krebs continues to explore the expanding field of sculpture and to observe the relationship between humanity and nature unfold.
ZZ Krebs (b. 1993 Washington, DC) is a multimedia sculptor and installation artist. She received her MFA in Art from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2019. She received her BFA in Visual Art from the University of San Diego with a double minor in Art History and Marine Science in 2015. Krebs has been in exhibitions at Baroque Works, Ladies’ Room, LACE Gallery, Human Resources Gallery, Commons LA, Track 16 Gallery, which was featured in Curate LA, and at numerous colleges and universities. She received merit grants to be an artist in residence at Can Serrat International Artist Residency (Barcelona, Spain), Vermont Studio Center (Burlington, Vermont), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Amherst, VA), Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (Hyattsville, MD), L’Air Arts (Paris, France), and the Mountain School of Art (Los Angeles, CA). Krebs currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.