Gala and Zack Bent
You Go Ahead (No, You First) – Round 2
Two artists recreate and reimagine their first collaboration, twenty years and three children later.
Gala and Zack Bent met at the end of their undergraduate studies in art and architecture, respectively. They began collaborating almost immediately—a playful and earnest volley of words and images and ideas. Their first exhibited collaboration was a four-part photographic performance collage—You Go Ahead (No, You First)—that was included in the Albright Knox Art Gallery’s 47th Annual Western New York Show in 1998.
Nearly 20 years later, this work was restaged as a video project highlighting the four parts: Push, Pull, Underestimate, Understand. In this recreation, instead of still photographs, the artists hold the poses pictured in the 1998 collages and allow their three sons to organically interact with their parents as past, present, and future collide.
About the Artist
Gala Bent is an artist, mother and educator living in Seattle, Washington. She has a BFA in Painting from Ball State University in Indiana and an MFA in Visual Art from State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, and currently teaches full time at Cornish College of the Arts. She is represented by G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle.
Zack Bent is an artist based in Seattle, Washington. His sculptures, photographs and videos are often mythic translations of his home, his family and the stuff he collects. Bent received degrees in Architecture and Environmental Design from Ball State University and an MFA in Photomedia from the University of Washington.