Zachary Fabri's 'Pink Kool-Aid Menagerie' Opens at Ogden Contemporary Arts

Key facts

• Pink Kool-Aid Menagerie runs October 2, 2026–January 3, 2027 at Ogden Contemporary Arts in Ogden, Utah
• Zachary Fabri is a Brooklyn-based artist who developed the work during a two-month residency in Ogden
• The exhibition includes painting, photography, video, sculpture, and performance
• Works were created at the Bonneville Salt Flats and Stansbury Island in the Great Salt Lake ecosystem
• Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970) is a key reference for Fabri's approach to site, landscape, and material
• Pink links halophilic microorganisms in the lake's hypersaline waters to Kool-Aid and the phrase 'drinking the Kool-Aid'
• The color thread leads to Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, whose predominantly Black followers died at Jonestown in 1978
• Fabri references Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Pope.L, and David Hammons
• Sculptures, videos, and performances engage the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which until 1978 restricted Black men of African descent from priesthood ordination and Black men and women from temple ordinances
• Fabri met regularly with local Latter-day Saint missionaries during his residency
• Photography of the works is credited to Tristan Sadler