Jeremy Waak

Jeremy Waak was raised in Lincoln, Nebraska. At an early age, he began to pursue creative endeavors, such as drawing and painting, which have remained integral activities for him. Being the child of a mechanic, Waak was heavily influenced by cars, engines, and all things mechanical.

Waak attended the Memphis College of Art as an undergraduate and majored in metalsmithing. In Memphis, he began to explore the design and creation of mechanisms, which spawned the first in a series of handheld devices called the "One Kernel Popcorn Popper." These disarmingly funny objects have allowed him to explore his love of the mechanical while making social commentary about our relationship to gadgets, planned obsolescence, absurdity, and Americana.

Waak continued to hone this body of work as a graduate student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His work in graduate school culminated in a thesis show titled,"One Kernel Popcorn Popper". This work earned him an Illinois Arts Council Grantin 2002. In 2010, he began a ten-year project converting an 19th century warehouse and blacksmith’s shop into a home and studio.After sixteen years in higher education, Associate Professor at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Waak is now a full-time studio artist. His current interest is in exploring new work involving industrial imagery/mechanisms hybridized with plant/animal subject matter. His studio practice includes functional objects, wearable artwork and jewelry, gallery installations and public artworks.