David Andres — Artist Statement
“By 2050, the oceans could contain more plastic than fish by weight.”— World Economic Forum, The New Plastics Economy (2016), citing the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
David Andres’ work is grounded in sustained observation of marine ecosystems in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, combining underwater photography with a material practice informed by natural science. His paintings investigate the cumulative impact of gillnetting, overfishing, and oceanic waste, revealing the fragile threshold between ecological resilience and irreversible loss.
Early in this inquiry, Andres began constructing images on mica, a naturally occurring mineral whose translucency echoes the optical qualities of water. Delicate acrylic washes—brushed, poured, and layered—move across surfaces embedded with objects recovered from the sea. These materials are not symbolic stand-ins but physical remnants of human presence in marine environments.
Fluid forms emerge that resist fixed identification, inviting viewers to reconsider boundaries between abstraction and representation, artifact and organism, surface and depth. Prior to working with mica, Andres physically molded canvas and paper over found objects and fishing net fragments, embedding environmental traces directly into the structure of the image.
Ground mica mixed into acrylic polymer creates thin, reflective glazes that shimmer across the surface, evoking light refracted underwater. More recent works expand this investigation through encaustic on panel, incorporating underwater photography, mica fragments, and objects collected from the surf. Across media, Andres’ practice remains consistent in its attention to materiality, process, and ecological witness.
BIO
David Andres
4843 E. Paseo Luisa, Tucson, AZ 85711 andresseaofcortez @ gmail.com
4843 E. Paseo Luisa, Tucson, AZ 85711 andresseaofcortez @ gmail.com
David Andres earned his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Wichita State University, where he was awarded a lectureship in drawing and served as a preparatory assistant at the Ulrich Museum of Art. He later established a studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn, before relocating to Tucson, Arizona.
In Tucson, Andres completed an MA in Education with an emphasis in Gallery Management at the University of Arizona School of Art, along with a post-baccalaureate certificate in K–12 education. He taught painting and served as the first graduate assistant for the Joseph Gross Gallery under the mentorship of Harold Jones, founding director of the Center for Creative Photography.
Andres’ work is held in numerous public collections, including the Tampa Museum of Art, Tucson Museum of Art, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Lubbock, and the Monterey Museum of Art, California. Corporate collections include Bank of America (San Francisco), Prudential Tower (Chicago), Swiss Bank (San Francisco), IBM East Coast Headquarters, and Shell Oil Company (Houston). His work appears in over 150 private collections and has been exhibited widely across the United States, Europe, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic in more than 120 group exhibitions and numerous solo shows.
In 2009, Andres and his wife, Julia, were commissioned to produce two bronze sculptures now permanently installed at Corpus Christi Parish in Tucson, Arizona.
Andres was awarded a six-month Artist-in-Residence at Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design in the Dominican Republic, sponsored by Gulf + Western, Paramount Studios, and Parsons School of Design. For fifteen years, he worked with the Arizona Arts Commission, completing 38 Artist-in-Residence grants statewide.
He currently teaches in the Visual Arts Department at Pima Community College, where he became Director of the Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery in 2007. His honors include PCC’s Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award (2010), the Pima County Arts Council “LUMIE” Award for Art Educator of the Year (2012), the Governor’s Award for Independent Art Educator for the State of Arizona (2017), and the Salt River Project “Arts Hero” distinction (2019). In 2020, PCC recognized his leadership in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for curatorial work highlighting artists from Sonora, Oaxaca, Paris, and Ontario. In 2024, he was nominated as Supervisor of the Year.
Andres has been deeply engaged in arts advocacy and volunteerism for over four decades. He was a founding member of Dinnerware Artists Cooperative Gallery in 1983, contributing to the development of Tucson’s downtown arts district. He has volunteered with the Arizona Theatre Company for over 26 years and served as Volunteer of the Year for the Tucson Museum of Art and Contemporary Art Society (2014), later serving as CAS President (2017–2019). He has also served on advisory and auxiliary boards for Tumamoc Hill Laboratories, Latin American Art Patrons, and the BLAC Gallery.
Andres’ studio is located at the Process Museum of Art in Tucson, Arizona.
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