James Verbicky

JAMES VERBICKY – BIOGRAPHY

James Verbicky was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1973 from Polish descent. He lived the majority of his early life between Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. He began painting around the age of four, when he was enrolled in an adult oil painting class after instructors noticed his premature ability to draw three-dimensional objects. Since that time, Verbicky has taught himself through experimentation with unusual substances, tools, and vivid color, creating and honing his own unique techniques and methods.

Roughly six years ago, Verbicky made the commitment to leave Canada for the U.S., intent upon making a name for himself in the American contemporary art market. After struggling with legitimacy for many years, Verbicky attained a rarely bestowed "Extraordinary Ability" Green Card from the U.S. government due to his extensive involvement with a myriad of galleries, museums, national publications and charity organizations across America.

Verbicky has since developed a strong presence in the contemporary art market in the U.S. and abroad. He is widely known for his atmospheric abstract expressionist work, his use of light and color suggesting impossible spaces. In 2008, abstract work by Verbicky was selected for a 110 year-old juried exhibition at the Louvre, in Paris, France, with the Societie Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His broad catalogue of abstract work is counted in hundreds of private, museum, and celebrity collections in countries all over the world.

With his presence as an abstract painter assured, Verbicky has sharply veered from his previous works, delving into his passion for suggestive conceptual work and allowing him to use more of his technical skill. His ‘Sheeple’ series is a fulfillment of long-running ideas about the world around him: an opportunity to communicate more concrete, yet sometimes bizarrely elusive ideas with his viewers.

Verbicky continues to expand his work, developing new pieces to join his expansive oeuvre of abstract work, as well as continue down the path of what art critic Peter Frank called, “obliquely familiar images that leave us uneasy, but also leave us vaguely enchanted.”