Originally from Somerset, Pennsylvania, Michael Kalmbach moved to Delaware in 2006 to complete his MFA in Painting at the University of Delaware. From 2003- 2006 he taught art at Washington & Lee High School in Montross, Virginia. Michael has taught Drawing & Painting at the University of Delaware and Cecil College. He is currently the Assistant Director of Admissions at the Delaware College of Art & Design. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Christi Award for Outstanding Arts Advocacy in recognition of New Wilmington Art Association, an artist collective founded and directed by Kalmbach. In 2010 he was awarded the Delaware Division of the Arts Established Fellowship in Painting.

I have only been able to access the sublime through chemicals. Of these experiences, the most productive were in the company of like-minded people, where a love of irony navigated our humors through a shared experience that was often dangerous. My practice owes its curiosity to this time in my life. This irony now bridges my private practice with a larger community that can gather around the works and draw meaning from my choice of materials. Due to its immediacy, acrylic paint becomes the ultimate medium for experimentation —a certain effect survives in the studio when it begins to do something. By applying paint on the inside of the wrapped plastic, a super flat saturated surface is created. On this surface I find parallels to the flat screen, HD TV, and vehicular clear coat finishes, but of course, all this breaks down when my atmospheric conditions, super novas, and Political Climates give way to a ripple in the plastic, and the seduction reveals itself as cheap sequin fabric and acrylic. 

 

 

Andrew Wapinski was born in Pottsville, PA in 1978. He formally studied art at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania where he received a BFA in Painting and a minor in Art History in 2001. In the summer of 2001 Andrew then went on to study Art History abroad with Syracuse University completing the Humanism and Arts in Renaissance Italy program. As a result of wanting to pursue painting as a professional career, Andrew completed an MFA in Painting at the University of Delaware in 2004.

Since 2001 Andrew’s work has been exhibited in more than 40 gallery and museum exhibitions in Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Texas, Connecticut, and California. His work is included in corporate and university collections such as Hilton Hotels, Swissotel, University of Delaware, and Think Tank Holdings. Andrew's work has also been published nationally in New American Paintings and Studio Visit Magazine. Andrew is currently a full time professional artist living and working in Philadelphia, PA.



This body of work addresses the idea of an existing dichotomy between nature and man. I believe that man is imbued with an inherent need to progress and that nature fuels this progression by providing both inspiration and raw material. What has been and what will be the ultimate cost of man’s inherent need to progress? The title Wasteland has emerged from this question.

My work is driven by process as well as specific and symbolic choices in materials. In my paintings gold is a symbol for the attainment of knowledge, wealth and power that man has pursued since the dawn of time. At the most basic level this pursuit begins with the organizing of nature and surrounding environment through the act of building. I address this in my work with the subtle formation of grids.

Throughout my painting process the gold and metallic surfaces become scarred with the incising of lines and blemished by a wash of soot and powdered pigment. This reflects the natural process of decay and the cyclical aspects of both nature and time as they relate to all man made objects. Symbolically the recessed and carved lines may be considered as a permanent imprint or effect that man has left on nature. Visually these lines relate to maps and roadways, which serve as a record of man’s progression.

The act of creating has a process that will generate cause and effect in one form or another. We don’t always stop to consider this as we are usually focused on a final outcome or refined appearance. I explore this idea through the use of pigmented epoxy resin in the final layers of my painting. This produces a highly refined surface in which the viewer may see a reflection of their immediate surroundings as well as themselves, perpetuating the cycle of push and pull between man and his environment.