Slate Show 2018

Andrzej M Karwacki

"My works have an intention of equanimity that is neither a thought nor an emotion. And truly it is an exploration of my own social psyche... My paintings, narrate events experienced, learned and forgotten and learned again by the human mind."

Andrzej holds Masters in Urban Architecture and  Integral Psychology. Andrzej's current paintings are Cosmo-centric and see humanity and art as an integral part of nature. Living in the SF Bay Area, he has a broad creative practice; his works are exhibited throughout The United States and Europe.


Tell us about yourself and your background.
I was born in Poland, in the historic town of Brzeg, I grew up during the years of political oppression and era of communist Poland. There I attended the School for the Arts and Literature. Unconsciously, these primary years were the platform for a deep attraction towards peace, poetry and art as a form of creative preservation. In 1984, I moved to New York and continued my education at the School for the Arts at Jersey City State University. While I was earning  a BFA in painting, I had the opportunity to explore everything from sculpture to printmaking, drawings to graphic art. At the end of the 5-year BFA program, I continued to the University of Pennsylvania where I earned my Master's Degree in the field of Urban Architecture in 1994. Architectural design taught me to observe and imitate nature through new media. After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area, my artistic direction began to take shape after integrating Eastern spirituality into my artwork. For me, Eastern Spirituality and forms of Zen and Buddhism were closer to seeing the world as beautiful rather than violent as had been the view in the preceding years. My artistic philosophy led me to resume academic work at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco where, in 2010, I received a Masters in Integral Psychology and a certification in Expressive Art Therapy.

In Site Design

"I have literally reconstructed my paintings to embrace the underlying order and harmonic balance that supports the organic and at times extremely chaotic nature of life."

Tell us about your work and style, why is it unique?
My work is always driven by a desire to create meaningful content. Equanimity Redefined is my current series of paintings. Here, I have literally reconstructed my paintings to embrace the underlying order and harmonic balance that supports the organic and at times extremely chaotic nature of life. The style is created by the application of paint with a palette knife to thin wooden boards, which are consequently cut up into strips and collaged together in a different order thereby creating more graffiti-like painting landscapes, reading the composition like a book that can be be explored repeatedly with new nuances coming to the fore each time. The process includes the additional step of including strips of collages made from various newspapers and magazines to bring fragments of images and text into the composition. The collage also serves to ground the work in time and place, with references to Art, Poetry and the Bay Area’s contemporary lifestyle. These works capture the pursuit of a type of art that was perceived in The “New American Painters” movement as being distinctly American. In style, they bring to mind works of John Chamberlain and Mark di Suvero who have similarly prioritized spontaneity and expressive force. My work goes a step beyond and successfully combines two very different artistic styles; Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, into one cohesive composition.
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EQ Expression Series, Insights

"Like in music, where each instrument and each note adds to another until a process starts to become felt, colors and tones flow until a composition becomes visible. The creative process is nothing more than a playful  rediscovery of something that was not there before.”

EQ in Blue, lines in space

Tell us about your process and what you feel when you are creating.
Creating art is like composing music, elements come together to create a symphony for your senses. Like in music, where each instrument and each note adds to another until a process starts to become felt, colors and tones flow until a composition becomes visible. The creative process is nothing more than a playful rediscovery of something that was not there before. I stop when a work of art seems somewhat but not completely complete, allowing the viewer to bring his/her own experience into it.
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Simple Poetics

"If society wants to fight disease, racism and other forms of bias in access to care and equality, we need to bring our center back to community and social values. I hope my work speaks to that thru positive messages and creativity."

SBFA (05-28-2019)

SBFA

​How does your location influence and inspire your work?
Currently, my studio is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. I use urban life as well as the cultural graffiti of the city's political and social climate to direct my works' themes. Sources of inspirations are simply all around us. Mostly, our soulful purpose as humanity and the role we play in the man-made world, and the natural world in which we coexist and share with each other and other living organisms. I would want my art to be non-linear in that way. My use of contemporary materials such as newspapers, photos, collage, paint, strips of aged wood and fabric allow me to communicate timeless concepts that are more-so based on Buddhist philosophy. My works have an intention of equanimity that is neither a thought nor an emotion. And truly it is an exploration of my own social psyche.

" I use urban life as well as the cultural graffiti of the city's political and social climate to direct my works' themes."

D-2017-2

Andrzej M Karwacki

Tell us about some of your achievements and notable projects.
As an urban architect I was part of a team, and a designer creating urban environments all around the San Francisco Bay Area during the 90’s. These still exist and serve as living playgrounds for social interaction. As an artist, I have created thousands of artworks that are now placed in both public and private places. I work with designers and art galleries to compose inviting and colorful environments. But, due to my client's need for privacy, I can’t disclose names. However, my website shows many locations in the installation images. Some of the public places include, San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, libraries, schools and shopping villages.

​What are you currently working on?
My work these days is mostly based in private commissions. Some include figure paintings, pop art and collage arts.

"We have salt in our sweat, in our tears, in our skin. And when we go back to the ocean – whether it is to sail or to observe it – we are going back to this instinctual belief that we all originate in the gesture of the moving sea."

Equanimity Expression Series, Radical Bliss

How do you want your art to affect the viewer?
Tolstoy mentioned in his bio, that he considers his work successful if the reader has his/her own emotional response or connection to his literary works. Perhaps, that is all. If one, in his/her process of contemplation with my paintings is able to experience some sort of emotional connectivity, then perhaps, I succeeded. Either way, Tolstoy simply put it "We cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of affective communication between people, by words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.”

This goes beyond just the pandemic. If society wants to fight disease, racism and other forms of bias in access to care and equality, we need to bring our center back to community and social values. I hope my work speaks to that thru positive messages and creativity.
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"My artwork is an exploration, a gesture which reflects a moment in life, a composition which tells a personal story."

SBFA 2

David Oakland

ARTIST STATEMENT
It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean… we have salt in our sweat, in our tears, in our skin. And when we go back to the ocean – whether it is to sail or to observe it – we are going back to this instinctual belief that we all originate in the gesture of the moving sea. If you close your eyes and you listen to your breath, it’s exactly like the quiet waves, gently sounding across the grains of sand. Our urban lives are coupled with the ocean life. And so is our creative personal nature.


Our artistic language is familiar, universal and repetitive. We try to interpret what we see and express its emotional understanding. By engaging with art we allow ourselves to notice the similarity of the feelings that arise. And that is our collective Nature. That is our universal ability to sense one into another. My artwork is an exploration, a gesture which reflects a moment in life, a composition which tells a personal story. And as “Nights through dreams tell the myths forgotten by the day.” ― C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. So do my paintings, narrate events experienced, learned and forgotten and learned again by the human mind.


www.andrzejmichael.com