Biography
Having descended through the hill country into South Texas, one day long ago, Dick Van Der Wurst never claimed to be Texan, but his German heritage and love for tacos is something he shares with many inhabitants of the region. Having earned an MFA from Miami University, OH, he spent the worst years of his life up north, maturing artistically and refining an Iconoclasmatic Pop Art™ style shaped by his experiences as a recovering Catholic, cancer survivor and optimistic existentialist. The perspectives made him a unique instructor for the Miami undergrads who took his 2D Fundamentals and Beginner Printmaking classes.
Dick’s layers of acrylic on used fence pickets imbue his work with a sense of history and time aged character that pops off the wall. His work has been featured in solo shows across Texas and Kentucky, and resulted in his being awarded the 2012 San Antonio Raw Artist of the Year, and San Antonio Art League Annual: Artist Exhibition Award in 2013.
Mr. Van Der Wurst lives and works in his humble turquoise studio-home (Dick’s WurstHaus Art Shanty) near downtown San Antonio. His work is currently on display at Period Modern in the Olmos Park area of San Antonio.
Statement
I strip away the psychological power of the sacred, taboo, and precious, revealing the true banality that lies behind the projection screen of our subconscious. My imagery shatters the viewer’s perspective, revealing a more empathetic and relativistic view of the world, free of the subconscious manipulations of ritual archetype and tradition. It is in this context that the personal, cultural, and even biological purpose of my art is revealed.
All of this is done through combinations of monumentally mundane imagery with a layering technique that creates captivating universes of complex physical depth. My Iconoclasmatic Pop Art™ creations possess a perceptible history that gives them a more substantive physical presence while the unexpected juxtapositions of relatable commonplace imagery reveal a depth of concept that shines back into the viewer’s eyes an oblique, irreverent reflection of our common culture. Anything and everything is open to being more objectively reexamined which makes it more difficult to justify conventional beliefs, highlighting the truth behind potentially toxic cultural narratives.