Andrew Wapinski is a visual artist whose current practice is rooted in the memories of interacting with the environment of the historic northeastern Pennsylvania coal mining town in which he grew up. There, his natural surroundings were forever shifting due to the mass extraction of anthracite coal.
His works place an emphasis on the physicality of material and its relationship to artistic process. Melting blocks of pigmented ice, hand ground anthracite coal and the collection of dust from his reductive painting processes lay the foundation for Wapinski to explore interwoven threads of liminal space, reclamation, and material significance as they relate to shifting environments and sense of place.
With a mission to first address the fragile impermanence of our natural and built environments and, second, to explore what the human role has been in reshaping these environments over time, each of Wapinski’s works becomes a new construct serving as a reflection on time and history of man transforming material with intent.
Andrew Wapinski’s “Demarcation” will be on display from September 16 through October 6 at Mark Borghi in Sag Harbor. An artist reception will be held on September 17, from 5:30 to 8 PM.