Born Daniel Harris and adopting the name of Zev, he studied at the Masters Institute of the Roerich Museum in Hungary, in New York City at the National Academy of Design, and at New York University, where he also taught for two years.

His artistic talents were discovered by Grace McCann Morley of California in the early 1940's, and she invited him to exhibit in the Abstract & Surrealist Art in America exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1944.

Zev built a fantasy structure in Big Sur, California called "Crazy Crescent" which has since been condemned by city officials. He also illustrated Eugene Walter's book Singerie-Songerie, a version of Hamlet for monkeys.

Harris changed his name to ZEV, which means 'wolf' in Hebrew, when he moved to Europe in 1953.  He first went to Paris, then Spain where he created huge sculptures for a villa in Spain, and then Rome where he died in 1984.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

San Francisco Museum of Art, 1947
Pinacotheca Gallery (Rose Fried Gallery), New York
Furstenberg Gallery, Paris
Arthur Jeffress Gallery, London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Abstract & Surrealist Art in America, San Francisco Museum of Art 1944
Corcoran Gallery
Chicago Art Institute
Whitney Museum of Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Metropolitan Museum, of Art, New York
St. Louis Art Museum
Salon du Mai, Museum of Modern Art, Paris


Sources include:

Susan Landauer, The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism
David J Carlson, Carlson Gallery, California.
Charlton Hall Galleries, September 2002