Zak Kitnick

On view at Malraux’s Place, Zak Kitnick’s latest solo show, “a door, a table,” encompasses two distinct yet interrelated series consisting of new, watercolor-based paintings: “Door,” which, meant to hang vertically, recalls the design of a backgammon board, and —and “Table,” in which horizontally oriented compositions center on various figures seated at a table on which a game of backgammon is underway.

Kitnick realized the entire body of work earlier this year while spending time in Upstate New York. Situated in a makeshift studio space, he took an actual door and mounted it on two sawhorses, thereby creating a functional table. On its surface, he produced both the “Door” and “Table” series. The artist replicated the same pattern across either group—while rendering each piece in a different color. Compounding such layers of self-referentiality, the results explore the visual language of backgammon from abstract and figurative angles alike.