Spending time in Japan, California and New York, elements of Western and Eastern culture weaves itself into Jack Wax’s obsessive, back-painted drawings. Thin lines of ink form delicate patterns both organic and geometric, creating visions of nets, intricate specimens, or imagined cages. Across all works, his subjects are mysterious yet seemingly living; each form conjures natural elements of the land or body, emitting its own personality.

Wax was born in 1954 in the Hudson River Valley region. He received his BFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design (1978, 1983). He has held teaching positions at the Tyler School of Art, Ohio State University, The Cleveland Institute of Art, RISD, and Toyama Institute in Japan. Currently, he is a professor in Richmond at VCUarts, where he is head of the Glass Department in Craft and Material Studies. His work is held in numerous collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum, CA; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; Tittot Museum, Taipei; Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC; Altria Group and Markel Corporation, both, Richmond, VA.

Fascinated by symbols of communication and how they can be impacted by the passage of time, S. Tudyk depicts looming, imagined billboards which appear worn down by age. Rather than an advertisement or other expected imagery, these billboards act as a stage for fragmented lettering within a diverse grid of colored panes, with openings which reveal glimpses of a complex underlying framework. Each piece is painted onto sturdy birch panel, often with embedded pieces of deconstructed paper giving a rough and ridged quality to select areas of the surface. Tudyk is a 2001 BFA graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design and currently lives in Richmond, Virginia.