Slag Sky Painting

Richard Wlodarczak was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1972, where he was raised in a Roman Catholic household by Polish parents. After receiving his BFA at the University of Manitoba and his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he travelled through Europe to further explore art history, as well as his own Polish heritage. Richard now resides and works in Vancouver, BC, where his art has grown towards his German Expressionist and American Abstract Expressionist influences. Richard’s work has drawn on themes of Christian/Pagan Dualism throughout his long career. Having attended Catechism in his formative years, his early work has drawn upon such Biblical imagery while at the same time undermining it with the sacrilege. His current work maintains the constant conflict of his past, but as he becomes more influenced by Abstract Expressionism, his paintings have become more abstracted in form, reduced in lines, shapes and marks. The works speak of an order and chaos, opposing yet cyclical and interconnected in their dualism. Modern in sensibility, the mystery of the primitive remains. Richard’s work can be found in private collections in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.