2012
Karole Armitage, United States
Frank Benson, United States
Karl Haendel, United States
Ester Partegas, Spain
Amy Sillman, United States
Dirk Stewen, Germany

2011
Rob Fischer, United States
David Fenster, United States
Justin Almquist, United States
Nick Herman, United States
Bill Morrison, United States
Erin Shirreff, British Columbia

2010
Ellen Altfest, United States
Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, France/Belgium
Marc Ganzglass, United States
Steve Roden, United States
Bill Saylor, United States
Melanie Schiff, United States

2009
Rita Ackermann, United States
Adam Davies, United States
Folke Köbberling & Martin Kaltwasser, Germany
Mischa Kuball, Germany
Sarah McEneaney, United States
Alex Schweder, United States

2008
Mark Flood, United States
Erik Göngrich, Germany
Monika Grzymala, Germany
Charline von Heyl, United States
Jason Tomme, United States
Jeff Zilm, United States

2007
Joanne Greenbaum, United States
Adam Helms, United States
Claudia Hinsch, Germany
Annette Kisling, Germany
Michael Krumenacker, United States
Paul Lee, United States
Daniel Sturgis, United Kingdom

2006
Oliver Croy, Austria
Mikael Levin, United States
Brian Kirk Nelms, United States
Jesus Palomino, Spain
Petra Trenkel, Germany
Christopher Wool, United States

2005
Mai Braun, Finland
Shane Huffman, United States
Maureen Gallace, United States
Isa Melsheimer, Germany
Wilhelm Sasnal, Poland

2004
Gail Peter Borden, United States
Christian Freudenberger, Germany
Matthew Day Jackson, United States
Corinna Schnitt, Germany
Monique van Genderen, United States
Heike Weber, Germany
Michael Yoder, United States

2003
Ariane Epars, Switzerland
Lies Kraal, The Netherlands
Thomas Müller, Germany
Avery Preesman, The Netherlands
Erwin Redl, Austria
Judi Werthein, Argentina

2002
Gudrun Flach, Germany
Jaroslaw Flicinski, Poland
Hlynur Hallsson, Iceland
Graciela Hasper, Argentina
Nestor Kruger, Canada
Albrecht Kunkel, Germany
Katherine Merz, United States

2001
Susan Chorpenning, United States
Julian Dashper, New Zealand
Howard Goldkrand, United States
Christina Hejtmanek, United States
Emi Winter, Mexico

2000
Margrét Haraldsdóttir Blöndal, Iceland
Andrea Claire, United States
Katharina Hinsberg, Austria
Michael Meredith, United States
Andreas Schmid, Germany

1999
Alexander Braun, Germany
Katharina Grosse, Germany
Ann-Michele Morales, United States
Makato Sasaki, Japan
Claudia Schmacke, Germany
Richard Wearn, New Zealand

1998
Degenhard Andrulat, Germany
Igor Antic, France
John Beech, United States
Jeff Elrod, United States
Kumiko Kurachi, Japan
Valérie Mréjen, France

1997
Bernhard Härtter, Germany
Leonard Kemp, United States
Ulrike Kessl, Germany
Kathranne Knight, United States
Polly Lanning Sparrow, United States
Jennifer Siegal, United States
Daniela Steinfeld Rau, Germany
Karien Vandekerkhove, Belgium

1996
Angela Ferreira, Portugal
Jutta Glöckner, Great Britain
Mary Ellen Latas, United States
Sigrun Paulsen, Germany
Kate Shepherd, United States
Jurek Wybraniec, Australia

1995
Jim Malone, United States
Elizabeth McBride, United States
Carina Plath, Germany
Richard Schwartzwald, United States
Gwendolyn Smolka, Germany

1994
Rupert Deese, United States
Anders Kruger, Denmark
Joost van Oss, The Netherlands
Regina Stralka, Germany
Karen and Jörg Berg, Germany

1993
Stephan Baumkötter, Germany
Daniel Göttin, Switzerland
Andreas Karl Schulze, Germany
Sonny Thorbjirnsdottir, Iceland

1992
Ingólfur Arnarsson, Iceland
Nadja Nanopoulos, Greece

1991
Brian Wendleman, Sweden

1990
Ragna Hermannsdóttir, Iceland

1989
John Wesley, United States

Jeff Zilm

Jeff Zilm's exhibition at the Locker Plant–The Pharmacist The Errand Boy The Bank Dick–featured six new paintings and a video. Zilm makes paintings and videos that take as their starting point the physical properties of film stock. For ten years or so Zilm has been collecting 16 and 35mm films. The films can be very old or fairly recent and are culled from a wide range of genres: industrial films, silents, obscure Hollywood weepies and oaters, "educational" films, blue movies, propaganda, etc., etc.

Zilm uses these films as his base material. Earlier in his career he cut them up and created lightboxed collages out of individual frames of film stock. Manipulating stock by hand, he noted how easily the film emulsion came away and became interested in working directly with the chemicals that comprise a film "image." After some trial and error, Zilm devised the procedure he's employed for the last several years: using detergent, he strips the emulsion off a film he's collected, then mixes it with acrylic paint. This compound is then sprayed and brushed onto a canvas or panel.

The paintings that result, large or small, are delicate chiaroscuros. Their blacks and greys are subtle and softly modulated. For Zilm's purposes, the best films are the worst ones, at least in terms of their physical condition: old and badly worn film stock decays in interesting ways, producing a range of tonal intensities when the artist con- and then decocts his compound. Movie soundtracks, for instance, which are printed optically at the edge of a print, sometimes turn purple or green as they age. This discoloration in turn plays a part in the final look of one of Zilm's paintings.

The artist observes a strict 1:1 ratio as well–one film equals one painting. On view at the Locker Plant, for example, were paintings and a video made from Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916, starring Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Norman) and Saps at Sea (1940, with Laurel and Hardy). Visitors to the gallery looked in vain for Fatty or Stan; nonetheless, they were there–in trace or figment form. Zilm's gray and black paintings have a spectral presence, and there are specters within them. It's for this reason, perhaps, that he always uses comedies to make them.

Jeff Zilm graduated with a BFA from the University of North Texas. He has shown his paintings and videos in a number of group shows in museums and galleries in Texas and New York, including the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston and Marty Walker Gallery, Dallas (both 2007); the Dallas Museum of Art (2006); Texas Gallery, Houston (2005); the Jewish Museum and Pat Hearn Gallery, New York (both 2001); and others. He lives in Dallas.