Speaking Volumes,
Burlington, VT
April 4 - May 2008
Recent Shows:
2007 Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough NH, Holiday
Invitational
Studio STK,
reviewed by Mark Awodey in Seven Days, read excerpts below
past events
Mamczak’s paintings border on apocalyptic. He unflinchingly refers to Holocaust images as he heaps giraffes, buffalo, salmon, camels, horses and other creatures into piles — ironically painted in almost festive hues. “Untitled (Stacked Horses)” is a 36-by-24-inch canvas portraying six hillocks of tan, brown and pastel-gray horses on a placid beach. The values of the piles become progressively paler as they recede into the picture plane. Mamczak’s clean outlines also become finer, creating space that is somehow both surreal and naturalistic. The actuality of Mamczak’s subject matter takes a little while to seep in. But once it does, and the viewer reads the horses as carcasses, it becomes unforgettable.
“Untitled (Victorian House on Beach)” is a 30-by-40-inch scene with a white Victorian mansion situated to the right on another calm strand of beach. Mounds of dead fish, however, are strewn on the sand. Mamczak’s dark outlines and flat colors are reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints, especially of the ukiyo-e style, which synthesized Eastern and Western pictorial conventions. That Asian influence becomes more obvious in the mansion’s companion piece, “Untitled (Victorian House on Fire).” It’s a troubled night scene in which yellow and orange flames, together with stylized clouds of smoke, rise into a slate-gray sky. Mamczak beautifully captures the light of the fire and carefully replicates the positions of the fish seen in “Untitled (Victorian House on Beach).”