Andrew Wapinski

Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

Artist statement

I have always been interested in the way we individually and collectively interact with nature and how that interaction forces our surroundings into a constant state of flux. This is the root of my studio practice. Filtered through artistic process, my experiences and observations become aesthetically defined by form, surface, light, line and material. There is an underlying dual narrative in the work which informs my aesthetic choice and processes. First is addressing the fragile impermanence of our natural and built environments. Second is exploring what the human role has been in reshaping these environments over time. The source of this investigation stems from my experience growing up in a northeastern Pennsylvania coal mining town. There, my natural surroundings were altered by the mass excavation of anthracite coal. Decades of mining gave way to an industrialized cycle of construction and deconstruction, allowing man made and natural environments to coalesce into an anomalous new terrain. Being immersed in such a volatile location where millennia of natural land formations quickly become restructured, it is easy to recognize a clear line of demarcation where man has interceded geological time. My daily studio practice is modeled on my experience as a witness to short cycle evolution produced by man and industry. I have taken my lifelong connection to anthracite coal and adapted it as a material for painting and drawing. Using coal alongside pigmented ice becomes a...

Artwork