The Verve: Artist’s otherworldly view comes across on canvas

Zak Rensselaer is an enigma. Stepping out of his Lincoln Town Car, he resembles a cross between a preacher and a mob boss, or a mortician and a guru.

He is quiet but, looking at his paintings, a viewer cannot help but believe that he has wisdom to share. He’ll tell you different.

“I don’t know anything about anything, not really, and to pretend that I do would only characterize my ignorance,” he said. “I started painting and doing music and now I don’t want to stop. That’s all.”

Rensselaer’s work blends curious figures into otherworldly landscapes in a mix of abstract, modern, and a touch of realism. In a recent series, figures stand serenely, yet they look like warriors of some forgotten tribe. Some have arrows protruding from them, and in some of the paintings, arrows and knives litter the ground. There’s an implication of violence, but the figures are static. What are they waiting for?

“I don’t know,” Rensselaer said. “The message is up to the viewer.”

Rensselaer, 32, creates his paintings in oils or acrylic paint on wood or canvas. Dark and edgy, his pieces reflect dreams and other intangible things; abstractions of thought and what-ifs like the possibilities of other dimensions and intelligent beings among us. His style is minimalistic, similar to cave drawings, and intricate, with hundreds of markings, chaotic yet strategically placed. “I want to get a viewer’s juices flowing,” he said, “Get them thinking about alternatives to our current reality.”

He also sings and plays drums in the band Stewards of God’s Wealth with Joel Severson, who plays the electric guitar and creates effects. The duo’s sound is psychedelic rock and much of their content is created on the fly; long groovy improvisations. They practice twice a week in a garage in Vinegar Flats. “We’re only getting better,” Rensselaer said.

Rensselaer’s goal is simply to get better and to do more creatively. “Right now, I’m not as good as I want to be, as I will be,” he said, “I don’t consider my work ‘fine art.’ It’s much more akin to cave art or modern art.” Like his music, his paintings are groovy improvisations of his views of the world and the otherworldly around him.

He hasn’t exhibited his work much; once at a gallery a few years back, once on a patch of grass near Artfest in Brown’s Addition, and most recently at Terrain; but he has sold quite a few paintings. This month, he will have work at nYne Bar and Bistro, 232 W. Sprague Ave., and at Magicraftsman Studio, 18209 E. Appleway Ave. Both venues will have receptions on Friday beginning at 5 p.m. Magicraftsman Studio will have a second reception on Saturday, also starting at 5 p.m.