James Verbicky lives and works in Southern California with his wife and two children, having spent much of his life in British Columbia, Canada, where he was born to Polish immigrant parents. He immigrated to Southern California in 2002 and eventually gained US citizenship in 2008, having been awarded the 'Extraordinary Ability' Green card for his extensive involvement with various non-profits, using his artwork to raise funds and awareness.
Read MoreThat same year, his work was selected for a 110 year-old juried exhibition at the Louvre with the Societie Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
While exhibiting in Paris, Verbicky began gathering ephemera from vendors set up along the Seine, and experienced a pivotal turning point in his artistic practice. His mixed media obsession had begun, and the artist committed to scouring vintage magazines for material.
Verbicky's paper collages follow a horizontal grid, borrowing Modernist and Minimalist tropes from artists such as Piet Mondrian, Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis. They often mimic familiar subjects, from TV screens to racetracks, and viewers experience a natural urge to try and find order and meaning in the chaos. He argues the collages can be "read" in any direction.
The mixed media works juxtapose modern and vintage print from advertisements, posters and magazines, resulting in intricately layered compositions which share similarities with fly posting on city streets. A resin topcoat creates a shiny surface and translucent layers of paper, causing the images to bleed through and add a sense of depth.
James Verbicky art remarks on a society oversaturated by media, and the process of reconstruction and retelling. Musical influences may also play a part, as his experience as a DJ shows through the carefully intersecting "tracks" which form his complex artworks.
