James Razko: Visions
"Employing several interwoven yet visually discrete bodies of work, James Razko delivers an unconventional narrative of modern warfare based on his experience as a soldier and clandestine operative in the Iraq war. Razko's paintings twist the traditional genres of trompe l'oeil, landscape painting, and portraiture to serve as a metaphor for the fractured human experience of war, trauma, and memory."
– Artist's Website
Trompe l'oeil – the French term for realistic art that "fools the eye" – can be seen in many of James Razko's paintings: in images of exquisite Middle Eastern tiles that appear old and chipped around the edges; in images of walls that look as if posters, added over the years, are peeling off in layers. The latter series includes symbolic words and images that help viewers relate the work to war: soldiers, guns, and airplanes, for example, and words such as "liberty," "freedom" and "terrorism."
The series titled Night Visions, although painted in a more traditional manner, conveys something equally unexpected. These landscapes are entirely green, and sometimes circular in format; they suggest we are seeing the landscape through a gun's night scope. Other series by the artist, such as Impact Craters and Wounds, depict trompe l'oeil bullet holes and gouges that are also convincingly realistic.
James Razko has said that he uses trompe l'oeil and artistic illusionism as loose metaphors for the ways trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder are experienced and then re-lived. One thing symbolizes another: a two-dimensional surface appears to be three-dimensional, a muffler backfiring is perceived to be a bomb blast, and so forth. Despite their differences, all of these paintings refer to the artist's war-time experiences in Iraq.
About The Artist
James Razko joined the military at the age of seventeen to escape suburbia and to finance his higher education. During his service he was trained as a tanker, as an infantryman, and later, he received specialized security training. Razko conducted numerous special operations missions while deployed to Iraq. His work is inspired by the current socio-political environment and the transformative events he experienced while overseas.
Razko aka James Raczkowski completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Stockton University in 2011, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree at the New York Academy of Art in 2015. He received several awards from New York Academy, including the Academy Scholarship, the New Jersey Heart of a Hero Scholarship, and a summer residency in Moscow, Russia. He was also one of six students nominated for the prestigious Chubb Fellowship.
James Razko was commissioned to paint portraits of Stockton University's four previous presidents; these were unveiled in 2016 and now hang in the Campus Center. His work has recently been published in the acclaimed bookThe Figure. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
--- Kate Nearpass Ogden, Professor Art History, Stockton University