James Verbicky Canadian, b. 1973

Canadian artist James Verbicky was born in 1973 and lived the majority of his early life in British Columbia before immigrating to the United States in the early 2000s.  He struggled with legal status for many years before finally being awarded the  'Extraordinary Ability' Green card due to his extensive involvement with a wide range of museums,  galleries, publications, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic endeavours.  In  2008,  his work was selected for a 110-year-old juried exhibition at the Louvre with the Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts. 

 

Finding inspiration among the many magazine vendors that range along the Seine, shortly after his exhibition in Paris, Verbicky created the media paintings: complex and sculptural mixed media artworks that became his vessel for communicating about a society over saturated by media.  By utilizing rare historical content, including both obsolete and persisting brands and advertisements, as well as vintage graphics, Verbicky has constructed a large oeuvre of densely layered and unique compositions that ensnare the viewer by engaging the natural human proclivity to find order in chaos, to sort and assign meaning as a way to navigate the world.  In this process, he reminds the viewer that they are constantly being influenced.    

 

In 2014, Verbicky returned to paint on canvas with the ERA and Bhavanga series, which allowed him to transcend the barriers of paper collage with bands of hand-painted canvas, enamel script, classical imagery, and crystalline.  At his core, Verbicky is a visual language manipulator, unsatisfied with deconstruction alone, he is driven forward by the process of reconstruction and the creation of a new abstract visual language. In 2018, he expanded his vision further by venturing into the world of three-dimensional monumental sculptural works, which build out into the environment and create a sensory experience beyond sight alone.    

 

Verbicky collaborates frequently with philanthropic organizations, using his artwork to contribute to non-profits like the  Waterkeeper Alliance and the Art of Elysium.  He has been the focus of international exhibitions ranging from Berlin to Bangkok, Beirut to New  York  City, Boston,  Washington  D.C.,  and  Los  Angeles.  His pieces have been auctioned by Sothebys & Christie's, and are counted in thousands of important private,  public, celebrity and museum collections in countries all over the world.

 

Verbicky works and lives with his wife and two children in Southern California.