Marc Kundmann works in encaustic and acrylic media. Both allow him to build and remove layers of color, transparency, and pigments, and to use texture expressively. His hope is that the resulting layers create not only intriguing and beautiful surfaces, but also give emotional life to the subjects and hint at the mystery inside.

Kundmann studied and workshopped with fine artists connected to the long tradition of creating on Cape Cod including Robert Henry, a student of Hans Hofmann, and Fine Arts Work Center Fellows Jim Peters, Bert Yarborough and Richard Baker. Through them he learned to explore materials, freeing himself from the constraints of representing the real world and allowing him to work expressively, responding to color and composition allowing the painting to evolve into its final form.

Full Artist statement

Before I embarked on my adventure in painting, I asked an artist I respected for his thoughts on where to begin and how to approach a painting. His best advice: don’t try to paint a feeling or specific emotion. Just paint. The emotional quality will come through.

Keeping this in mind, I began to paint my surroundings, the wild beaches of Truro in particular, en plein aire. I studied and workshopped with fine artists connected to the long tradition of painting and art-making on the Cape including Robert Henry, a student of Hans Hofmann’s, and Fine Arts Work Center Fellows Jim Peters, Bert Yarborough and Richard Baker. Through them I learned to explore materials, free myself from the constraints of representing the real world and work in a more expressive way, responding to color and composition and creating work from both intellect and emotion. I am also particularly influenced by the Bay Area Figurative Movement including painters David Park, Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn.

I am currently working in encaustic and acrylic media. Both allow me to build and remove layers of color, transparency, and pigments, and to use texture expressively. Keeping true to that first piece of advice, I try to focus on the joy of creating. My hope is that the resulting layers create not only intriguing and beautiful surfaces, but also give emotional life to the subjects, whether figures, structures, or boats, and hint at the mystery inside.

Recent exhibitions include a one man show at Addison Art Gallery in 2014, Teaching Traditions (2013) and Art of the Garden (2012) at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum and the two-person show Timeless: Explorations in Wax-based Media (2011) at the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

My work is featured in Deborah Forman’s comprehensive book, Contemporary Cape Cod Artists: Images of Land and Sea (Schiffer Publishing, 2013).

I am also a teaching-artist at the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Museum School at PAAM.

Education
•    Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduated with Honors in 1985
•    Studied painting at the Provincetown International Art Institute with Jim Peters
•    Workshopped with Robert Henry, Bert Yarborough, Tom Knechtel, Richard Baker, and David Hilliard at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown MA

Exhibitions

Member’s Juried Show, September 2017, Provincetown Art Association & Museum (PAAM)
Curator: James Wagner, Exhibits Specialist, JFK Presidential Library and Museum

Member’s Juried Show, March 2016, PAAM
Curator: James Wagner, Exhibits Specialist, JFK Presidential Library and Museum

Solo Show: Illuminations
Reception, September 12, 2015
Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, MA

Solo Show
Exhibition, July 2014
Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, MA

Teaching Traditions
curator: Grace Ryder O’Malley
November 10-January 8, 2014
Provincetown Art Association & Museum

Joyce Johnson & Marc Kundmann
September 1-8, 2012, AddisonArtGallery, Orleans

Art of the Garden
curator: Richard Lacasse
May 4–July 15, 2012
Provincetown Art Association & Museum

Mary Moquin & Marc Kundmann
Timeless: Explorations in Wax-based Media
November 19, 2011 - January 29, 2012
Two person show @ Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis

Members Juried Show
September 23 - November 6, 2011
Provincetown Art Association & Museum

Memories in Color, Exhibition and Artist Talk
Aug. 27 - Sept. 4, Addison Art Gallery, Orleans

Inspired by the Cape Cod National Seashore
Saturday, July 23, 5:30-7:30pm, Addison Art Gallery, Orleans

Projected Image @ artSTRAND
Thursday, June 17, 2010, Provincetown

Mary Moquin & Marc Kundmann
Exhibition and Artist Talk, July 2010
Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, MA

Solo Show
Exhibition and Artist Talk, July 2009
Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, MA

Solo Show
July 2008, Tristan Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Group Show curated by Fine Arts Work Center Fellow Nathalie Miebach at FAWC January 2008, Provincetown, MA

Stephen Coyle and Marc Kundmann
July 2007, Tristan Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Stephen Coyle and Marc Kundmann
July 2006, Tristan Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Member’s Juried Show, March 2004, PAAM

Member’s Juried Show, February 2003, PAAM

 

Marc's work is on display at the 3Harbors Realty offices in Truro and Provincetown, and are available exclusively through the Addison Art Gallery.

Videos

Watch Kundmann at work

Articles

Stories about Kundmann in print media

The Cape’s industries have naturally been connected to the spectacular bodies of water that surround it, Tourism now dominates, but Capes towns were built on whaling, fishing, fish processing, and saltworks. In Truro, evidence of these are increasingly difficult to find. Cold Storage Beach, depicted in this painting, is not only a beautiful spot to watch the sunset and spend a lazy beach day, but it’s a perfect example of the evolving maritime industries of the Cape. It’s the former site of the cold storage fish processing plant. The only evidence left are two lobster trap sheds, transformed into idyllic beach cottages.

The Cape’s industries have naturally been connected to the spectacular bodies of water that surround it, Tourism now dominates, but Capes towns were built on whaling, fishing, fish processing, and saltworks. In Truro, evidence of these are increasingly difficult to find. Cold Storage Beach, depicted in this painting, is not only a beautiful spot to watch the sunset and spend a lazy beach day, but it’s a perfect example of the evolving maritime industries of the Cape. It’s the former site of the cold storage fish processing plant. The only evidence left are two lobster trap sheds, transformed into idyllic beach cottages. - Marc Kundmann