Zwadlo grew up on a dairy farm, helping his family feed 50 cows in northern Wisconsin. In 1967, he began to pursue his undergraduate’s degree at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, and in 1980, he received his Bachelors of Fine Arts’ degree from SUNY-Potsdam. He continued to live in New York City for 20 years until finally coming to reside in the South Side of Milwaukee.
My subject is people represented realistically in an abstract urban space, as seen from an imaginary aerial point of view. I title the paintings “Pedestrians” to make it clear that the point of view is the point of the painting; the people are not doing anything especially interesting, just walking in the street.
I lived for many years in New York City, working in office buildings, thinking about how to orient myself. From the aerial point of view, to me, the Manhattan landscape became, literally, a map of itself. The urban space flattened visually into a kind of “found” painting. Being a native Midwesterner, I translated my sense of the flatness of the Midwestern landscape into a solution to how to paint the verticality of the urban landscape.
I use photographs as a way to reconstruct images from the real world and transfer them to the real painting. For me, photography functions as a catalyst, as in a chemical reaction: photographs are instrumental to making the painting, but they do not appear in the completed painting.
I refer to Impressionist cityscapes, Bauhaus photography, New York School abstraction, and Minimalism as some important influences
For me, the urban pedestrian symbolizes a complex social milieu. I paint each figure as a detailed individual portrait, familiar yet anonymous. I construct the crowd from thousands of photographs, arranged randomly to suggest patterns, and in patterns that suggest randomness.
Imagery from the aerial point of view is instantly recognizable even though we rarely directly experience it. In contrast with traditional perspective, with its closer-is-bigger implied hierarchy, from above each figure is equal in scale and in space, as in a democratic vision, but with the added ambiguity between the arrogance of “looking down” versus “looking at.” The aerial view makes it possible to imply the entire infrastructure of the city: cars, buildings, streets, etc., without actually depicting any of those things.
The aerial view compresses space. The spatial flattening of the images intensifies the surface of the painting, and enhances the colors in a unique way. The compressed space is a map, a kind of living map, which shows a way of seeing, and a way of being in the world.
Recent Exhibitions:
2009 - 8 Counties, Kohler Art Center, Juried show, Sheboygan WI
2009 - Forward! Juried show, Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee WI
2009 - Group Show, Katie Gingrass Gallery, Milwaukee WI
2009 - Wisconsin Artists Biennial 2009, Juried, Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc WI
2010 - Art From the Heartland, Juried, Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis IN
2010 - Jim Zwadlo & Philip Krejcarek, Urban Ecology Center, Milwaukee WI
2010 - Real People 2010, Juried, Woodstock IL
2010 - Vertigo In Flatland, Solo show, Wisconsin Union Galleries, Madison WI
2010 - Annual Salon, Walkers Point Art Center, Milwaukee WI
2010 - Winter Juried Exhibition, Anderson Arts Center, Kenosha WI
2011 - Gallery 2622, solo show, Wauwatosa WI
2011 - Wisconsin Artists Biennial 2011, Juried, Anderson Arts Center, Kenosha WI
2011 - Suitcase IV, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee WI
2011 - Group Show, Hennes Art Company, Minneapolis MN
2011 - Summer Group Show, Jules Place, Boston MA
2011 - Inaugural Show, Beals & Abbate Fine Art, Santa Fe NM
2011 - Summer Show, M A Doran Gallery, Tulsa OK
2012 - Solo Show, Beals & Abbate Fine Art, Santa Fe NM
2012 - MARN Salon, Milwaukee WI
Recent Commissions:
American Bankers Association, Washington DC
National Football League, Baltimore MD
Central Grocers, Joliet IL
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Madison WI
National Association of Letter Carriers, Baltimore MD
Stone & Youngberg, New York NY
Stone & Youngberg, Chicago IL
Fountaindale Public Library, Bolingbroke IL
American Career College, Anaheim CA
Marymount University, Baltimore MD
Selected collections: Over 150 private and public collections including:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
UW-Stevens Point and UW-Platteville
SUNY, Potsdam NY
SUNY, Canton NY
The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield CT
General Instrument Corp., New York NY
Prudential Life Insurance Co., Parsippany NJ
Chemical Bank, New York NY
NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority, NYC
Kidder Peabody, New York NY
White Plains Hospital, White Plains NY
Merck & Co., West Point PA
The St. Paul Companies, St. Paul MN
Meridian Bank, NJ
Hale & Dorr, Boston, and Washington DC
Suburban Cablevision, NJ
ARA Corp., Philadelphia PA
Barton Protective Services, Atlanta GA
Seabury & Smith, New York NY
Core States Bank, Philadelphia PA
Goltz Associates, Bloomington MN
Briggs and Morgan, Minneapolis MN
Dollar Bill's, Chicago IL
Houston Effler, Boston MA
Total System Services, Columbus GA
MFS Investment Mgmt,,Boston MA
Baird & Co., Milwaukee WI
Swett and Crawford Group, Irvine CA
LaPlaya Beach Resort, Naples FL
State Street Research, Boston MA
Sears Merchandise Group, Chicago IL
Piper Jaffray, Minneapolis MN
G E Capital Mortgage, Cherry Hill NJ
