Drawing in red outline of a figure in what looks like a tub with water, seen from a diagonal view above against a blank bright yellow background. The figure's bottom half is submerged, with its crossed legs, chest, arms, and head outside of the water. It's something between a person, seal creature, and fish. Two half circle eyes are closed.
Bio
Or Zubalsky’s work asks what records can hold, what remains unrecorded, and how both shape knowledge, experience, and possibility. They make paintings, drawings, scores for viewing, and systems. Zubalsky is a 2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and was previously a resident at Pioneer Works (2023), NEW INC incubator member (2023), and C/Change R&D Lab fellow (2023). They live with their partner and child in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn).
Layered oil pastel drawing of a figure rendered from just below shoulders to around the knees. Layers creating textures of color: yellows and oranges top, pink and oranges bottom, light greens and teals background and ground. Arms hiding behind the back, elbows protruding out. Faint forms are visible under t shirt area.
Rectangular painting in mostly blues. Pink lines add features that make it seem like the lower half of a cartoonish face with half a smile and stripy shirt. Thick textured outlines reveal traces and detail. There's also a yellowish smudge and three fingerprints.
Rectangular painting in mostly reds, with some detail in pink, brown, teal, and orange. Some forms are recognizable, such as two roughly centered flower shapes, an oval or ring or opening or hat or a part of a container or who knows. Details are covered and revealed in all sorts of textured ways.
Large eye-with-lashes like form is carved out in pale yellow at the center of a thick swirly background in light purples, pinks, oranges, teals, and reds. The swirl follows the narrow oval shape of the eye form, or the eye form follows the swirl. It can also be a microscopic bacteria or just a form.
Scene in thin purple-red lines and broader light orange marks. Person standing seen from behind against a horizon line with two large hills in a range. Clear hairline from ear to ear. Straight back. Slightly leaning back on straight left leg. Right leg and arms from elbow onwards are drawn in overlapping and slightly different shapes and directions. Orange texture frames the person in a way, adds some color to the hills, and continues to the sky.
Square painting with mostly pink on one side and mostly cream in the other. Teal separates some shapes from one another. Lines and smudges converge towards a point beyond where shapes meet.
A dark green large simple three dimensional box shape sits on top of a curved textured pink purple area. The visible face on the side is darker than the front face. The front side has a solid dark green rectangle in the center, meeting the ground. Dark green lines and dark pink lines move in / out between the opening and the right and bottom right edges of the page. Thin dark purple horizontal area sits above the scene.
Scene in mostly monochrome purple, rendered as if from slightly above and to the side. A figure with a relatively square head and two yellow outline flower eyes is seen reclining on a three dimensional form, feet up, holding a book that's drawn a couple of times over itself. There is a frame on a surface next to it with a drawing of a flower in red outline.
Thick layers of light blues cover the majority of the horizontal page, with some small holes and areas revealing a purple layer underneath. The layer leaves a textured purple red geometric form visible in the bottom right quadrant. It looks like a wide rectangular box with a triangle on top.
Vertical painting with a composition of rectangular forms creating a pseudo three dimensional space. Large vertical cyan rectangle reaches the center of the canvas and almost to the top. Running across the whole height on the right is a layered light pink. Covering the rest of the space between is something that looks like an indentation or an opening or an inset, made of different shades of desaturated reds and pinks with thinner light cyan outlines painted over.
Monochromatic light blue partial portrait, only eyes and nose seen from below. Geometric wide triangular upward nose, nostrils dark. Big round eyes with many overlapping ovals turned at different angles in each pupil. Slightly curved line under each eye. Curved black lines above each eye.
Square painting with a saturated red background framed by blue and white scribbles and scratches. A hairy cartoonish figure with a long nose, two short legs, and no visible arms is drawn in dark purple slightly right of the center. A cylinder-like form, approximately the size of its nose, is centered behind it.
Scene in monochromatic light bluish green. Figure is lying / lifting from / draped over something long with a raised back, neck in the air. Both stubby arms fall down in front of the scene. One stubby leg crossed over another horizontal one. Three pairs of half circles are drawn over the head, chest, and groin areas. A three dimensional space in a different receding perspective is behind the figure, with something that looks like a windowsill or edge and some vertical and horizontal slats maybe.
Vertical panel in layers of light greens, yellows, some cyan and pink. A horizontal simple figure with crossed legs is at the bottom of the panel, obscured by smudges and streaks emanating from a large medium yellow form at the center. Long lines move in a large arc between head and legs across the panel's height.
Monochrome drawing of a scene in a bluish green. A curvy figure drawn as an outline is stretched across the diagonal plane, its posture doesn't quite make sense. It's floating upwards, head and edge of stubby arm over / under a solid oval surrounded by a ring / lip. Eyes appear closed as half circles. Other arm extends towards a three dimensional cavity in a receding three dimensional grid, with two clashing perspectives. A small butt and crossed stubby legs are over another three dimensional opening in yet another clashing perspective.
Three dimensional scene in monochromatic gray, drawn from a top diagonal perspective. A figure with stubby arms and legs and three pairs of half circles (eyes, chest, groin area) is lying on a surface with supports, head in the air, holding weights up. Two walls have three dimensional cavities in them, a small one on the left behind the head and a large one on right, next to the weight and above the floor.
A large pseudo three dimensional triangular form is in the center of the page against a thick background in two very similar shades of red. Each side of the triangular form appears to fold into the adjacent sides, with colorful horizontal stripes running along it. An inner triangular space reveals a thick background in muted orange and purple colors. Thick colorful lines emanate out of the triangular form outwards, carved out of the background.
Layers of orange and light desaturated yellow cover a vertical panel with large smudges of color. A figure is drawn in a thick very light yellow line: large head form, round body with a big butt, the beginning of the back of the left thigh, left arm cropped by the left edge before the elbow, right arm cropped by the right edge after the shoulder.
Portrait. Round head in red outlines appears to be facing slightly upwards with two large arrows facing each other for eyes and a big c shaped mouth with sharp triangular teeth on top and bottom, slightly offset. The figure is wearing what looks like a red bandana tied in the back and a black shirt. A wide textured black mostly transparent stroke runs over and across the eyes and extends beyond the head.
Drawing in mostly monochrome purple with some red and a touch of light orange. An upside down mostly full tub-like vessel with a lip on suggested ground registers as a hat of a minimal head. Two thin red lines outline the shape of the head. Two red upward facing half circles on top of what would have been a liquid register as eyes probably. Broad lines in faint purple radiate outwards around the figure and hat / tub.
Monochromatic medium orange drawing. A three dimensional inset with a dark side face and a darker back sits in a grid of textured pieces that don't quite align with its perspective. Four finger-like forms with fingernails and little indentations are lined next to each other on the bottom side of the inset.
Horizontal panel split roughly in two side by side halves. On the left is a red drop, point up, its outline is carved in many thin lines, against a mostly green background with smudges, scrapes, and wiped areas. On the right is a mostly turquoise drop, point down, its rendering of a reflection is carved, its outline is a gradient of pink, orange, and red, against a pseudo three dimensional background in oranges and yellows. The background across the two halves makes up a vague spatial scene.
Monochromatic red scene in oil pastel. Figure draped over / floating above a container with a large oval opening, situated in a skewed three dimensional space. Wall divided into squares with one square missing. Ground drops into a cliff. Closed eyes forms on head and chest.
Topless, muscular, and mustached cartoonish figure with long hair, a bandana, and a closed fist drawn in red lines from the belt up against a thick textured light greenish gray background. Peeking from behind the background is a part of a light skinned face with mostly swirly eye forms visible.
Monochrome portrait in red. A triangular head with some three dimensional depth to it seems to be moving toward the bottom right area of the page or indicate an extreme perspective. Eyes looking sideways toward the right. Long pointy nose crosses the triangle shape into the red background. Mouth lined with rectangular teeth grid slightly curved upwards. Long mustache spiraling on each end.
Scene in thickly applied layers of oil pastels. A textured light gray, slightly translucent figure is surrounded by teal and stretched inside a cross cut of something that would be a tub but looks kind of like a chariot form. Whatever it is, it's yellow, has a red outline and occasionally recedes into the thick orange background. The figure's outline is a shimmering violet that appears to be carved out of the medium around it. One leg crossed over a very straight and extended leg. One arm falling sideways and back. Two downward facing half circles as eyes.
Small light pink blobby outline with a small vertical red smudge are positioned on a winding yellow pink receding path against a green form with yellow step-like loose carvings. To the left are three areas of color like receding hills bottom to top: dark purple and red with streaks, dark purple and light orange texture, pink and red with orange streaks. The green form's edges smear toward the three forms.
Abstract composition. Rectangle layered in greens and blues runs across the bottom quarter to a third of the page. Above it is a squiggly brown form with a raised pointy edge and a darker blue triangle below its edge. Above it is a dotted brown line with a right facing arrow, over textured blue forms with little circles and some straight vertical and diagonal lines. The arrow meets a narrow dark blue vertical form. To its side is a light textured gray and blue rectangle with a thin blue line running across its bottom side.
Simple line drawing of a spiral in saturated pink moves between a drain form at the bottom and the top edge of the long vertical panel, against a thick orange background with a few unclear details and lines peaking out. Light translucent teal amorphous shape covers the bottom area. Shorter thin vertical yellow lines and smudges cover the middle and top area.
Simple drawing in light blue outline. The tip of a finger, with a relatively detailed fingernail is over a "5" key, edge of finger touching the rounded edge of the 5.
A scene. Figure drawn in light pink outlines is at center, standing on one stubby leg with the other leg crossed over it, holding a cup with a stubby arm. Eyes closed, wiggly lines rising from cup form. Ground is two horizontal light pink lines. To the right and cropped is a tall and wide container in black outline. To the left above the head is a red rectangle and the letters RD in white against a black background.
Scene in a squarish area on a horizontal page. A crudely depicted horizontal box on a pole (like a billboard) casts a subtle purple skewed shadow, on a simple purple landscape next to a faint pink road leading to small red forms, against a dark purple sky with a pink quarter of a circle in the top right corner. The box is lined with small marks / dots alternating between red and a yellowish cyan. The middle of the box is a yellowish cyan. Short thin red lines and light pink smudges radiate around the box.
Red tub seen from above, against a light orange background, taking up the majority of the height of the paper and appears to be leaning on the paper's right and bottom edges. What would be the water is an opaque light teal with some purple smudges and squiggly orange lines in a loose grid pattern.
Simple figure / droopy form drawn a little below the center of a square panel in thick and faint red line over another form against a ground defined by two short diagonal lines. Stubby legs crossed above the knee and falling over, stubby arm falling over the lip of the bottom form. Light red smudges around the figure and some past scrubbed renderings of the same scene. 5 light red crosses of different sizes scattered in the background around and above the figure.
Scene in thick blue hues, with pink outlines carved out of it. Curvy figure is floating above a tub with lip / upside down hat with brim in what appears to be a steamy room against a grid of small imprecise squares, almost touching a horizontal line at the top of the page. The figure has two downward facing half circles for eyes, stubby limbs falling down, legs crossed.
Monochrome drawing in purple oil pastel on newsprint. A figure drawn in a loose curvy outline is floating above a nearly full tub-like container. The figure's legs are crossed and all of its limbs are falling over. Its eyes are two downward facing half circles. The tub is on a ground of thin long horizontal lines, against a background of broad vertical lines, and under multiple rows of darker horizontal squiggly lines like high frequency waves.
Figure in red outline is lying in / on top of a container roughly in the shape of a hip bone and that registers as some kind of a tub (also drawn in red outline). The figure is surrounded by blue that's in / on top of the container, boneless legs crossed, arm dropped. The background is bright yellow.
Cartoon simplified and incorrect line drawing of a standing skeleton in pink oil pastel. Skull, small bone for neck, horizontal bone for shoulders, two bones for each arm, hand and finger bones, three ribs, hip bone shaped line a bean with two circles, two bones for each leg, foot and toe bones.
Rendering of a drawing of a skull in color pencil. The skull is roughly centered on the page against a bright yellow background. It has a thick medium pink outline, two filled in vertical ovals for eye sockets, upside down filled in heart shape for the nasal cavity, two unrealistically long sharp fangs on the sides with a round protrusion at their top, and sharp zigzag upper teeth in between.
Personal history, national narratives, code, and sound facilitate a debugging session of a memory leak: a type of software bug that gradually makes memory unavailable and depletes the system of resources.