Bio

Andrew Kozlowski earned his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and his BFA in Printmaking from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University.  His prints, works on paper, installations, and sculptural work works have been featured in more than a dozen solo exhibitions, and over 50 group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad.  In 2009 he completed a residency at the Frans Masereel Center in Belgium and was awarded 2011-2012 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship for his work in printmaking.  He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Florida.

Statement

My fingers always form a C chord when I pick up a guitar. C/F/C/F/Am/G.  I found myself strumming this in a 6/8 timing, which has more of a sway than 3/4.  The chord progression has many variations, it’s got a blend of major build and release, ebb and flow. I remember discovering it as a teenager, and though I could never let it go, I could never figure out how to utilize it. 

I wanted something that swelled with the timing, that started quiet and got loud, messy, confusing.  I layered seven pairs of guitar tracks one after the other, but without listening to them, on top of this arrangement.  They are out of register double drops.  While each has some purpose I’m sure, it’s ok if you can’t hear each of them.

When it came to the image I built it thinking of how I would mix the tracks together.  Layering, doubling, panning left and right.  I played with saturation, ghosting, warm and cool.  

The four images in four quadrants called to mind the cover of “Let it Be” by the Beatles, their last studio album.  It’s a curious cover.  Harmony, which made the Beatles so famous, comes not from consensus, but difference, and here they are together, but separated. I’ve been thinking perhaps we should avoid looking for the things that work best together, and rather allow things to fit in between each other, to fill the spaces the others don’t.  Like these four images.  They go together, but I’m not certain why.  I’m just going to leave them here and let them work it out.  

I kept coming back to the Trojan Horse as I was working on both the song and the print.  Something that seems like a gift, but at night, all these things climb out of it.  It gets chaotic.  In the morning when you can finally see what happened you realize it was nothing like you thought.  These works are new to me, and they feel different from any other work that I’ve made.  I’m compelled to bring them in like a Trojan Horse and see what comes spilling out of them when I least expect it. 

Website: www.andrewkozlowski.com

Instagram: @andrew.kozlowski