Douglas Witmer

Please join me this coming Saturday evening for a pop-up exhibition with California-based artist Timothy Buckwalter. There will be good food and live music happening!

Crystal Days–recent work by Douglas Witmer & Timothy Buckwalter with Michael Macfeat
March 3-31, 2012
Sugar
21 West Willowgrove Ave map–>
Reception Saturday March 3 5-7pm

What’s a “pop-up exhibition?” In this case it’s a show in an historic former garage space that Tim and I were offered with just a few weeks notice. We decided to jump at the chance.

What’s the venue “Sugar?” It’s a new art/design boutique in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.

What’s my connection to Timothy? Well, we both grew up in Lancaster County, PA, but we didn’t know each other until a few years ago. Since then we did discover that Timothy’s father once worked for my family’s greenhouse business. If you don’t already know Timothy Buckwalter’s work, please head over to his site and check it out.

What is the title “Crystal Days” all about? It’s a terrific Echo and the Bunnymen song from their classic 1984 album “Ocean Rain.”

West Philly Abstraction
March 9-30, 2012
University City Arts League, 4226 Spruce Street, Philadelphia
Reception, Friday, March 9,6-8pm

West Philly Abstraction is a show I’m super excited about…mainly because I organized it. Here’s my press release blurb about it:

West Philadelphia has long been been a favorite neighborhood for the independent and creative set, a hotbed for activists, anarchists, and D.I.Y. rockers alike rubbing shoulders with architects and Ivy League profs. In the midst of it all live some of Philadelphia’s most noted abstract artists. These are artists who bring fresh perspectives to the now-venerable tradition. Not unified by any particular style, West Philly Abstraction presents eight artists–artists whose works have been exhibited internationally and are part of major museum collections–who make West Philly their home.

With: Marina Borker, Robert Goodman, Todd Keyser, Paul King, Alice Oh, Caroline Letham Santa, and Tremain Smith.

Greetings from West Philadelphia!

I’d like to take a moment to thank you for following and supporting my work this past year. 2011 was a busy and successful year for me, with many firsts including my first solo museum show, catalog publication, and museum acquisition. More info about all of these can be found in the news section of my website.

Just now my studio is full of new paintings in the early stages of development as I prepare for my next solo show in New York, slated for early 2013. As always, there are some other things in the works, too! Stay tuned for more details.

Until then, I wish you and your loved ones peace and fulfillment in 2012.

Sincerely,
Douglas Witmer

DGLS Studio
441 South 43rd Street
Philadelphia PA 19104 USA
215.498.5754

Essay by Chris Ashley
12 pages with 6 reproductions
The catalog is free ($3 US / $5 Int’l shipping). Order a copy by clicking below.

Here’s some exciting news to begin the fall.

I Found a Reason

Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park FL
Exhibition continues through October 9

From the Orlando Weekly review of the show: The aggregation of tiny variations develops like a meditation; the repeated interaction of color and paper slowly builds a body of knowledge, much as a child learns to write by repeating the same motions over and over…If there is any message imparted by I Found a Reason, it’s the importance of play to contemplation; and vice-versa… Read full review…

I will be a Visiting Scholar at Rollins College September 22 and 23. In addition to presenting a workshop and doing individual critiques with students, I will give a public lecture about my work at the Museum on Thursday September 22 at 6:00pm.

The catalog for the show will be back from the printers soon!

Essay by Chris Ashley
12 pages with 6 reproductions
The catalog is free ($3 US / $5 Int’l shipping). Order a copy by clicking below.

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Museum Acquisition

How Soon Is Now?, 2008. Black gesso and acrylic on canvas, 44 x 54 inches.

In July, the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia acquired my 2008 painting “How Soon Is Now?” for their permanent collection. The painting will debut this fall in the exhibition “Flirting With Abstraction” which runs from September 25 through January 8, 2012.

In 2008, the artist Brent Hallard published an interview with me that included a discussion of this painting. The painting was also exhibited in New York in 2008 and in 2010.

I’m pleased to share my summer studio news with you, especially because it includes my first museum solo exhibition! Read on! First off, a great group exhibition in California…

Life of the World to Come : Chase the Tear at NIAD Art Center

June 20 – August 19
NIAD Art Center, Richmond CA
Curated by Timothy Buckwalter

Chase The Tear is the last in a three‐part exhibition series, “Life of The World To Come,” that presents a preview of a future where work from disabled artists is viewed in the same light as pieces and projects from artists who may not have a diagnosis extreme enough to qualify them as “other.” I will have ten new “Fruitville” pieces in the exhbition.

Watch a video teaser for the show…

…

I Found A Reason at Cornell Fine Arts Museum

July 1 – October 9
Cornell Fine Arts Museum | Rollins College, Winter Park FL

My first museum solo exhibition focuses on my ongoing Fruitville and School Papers series, which debuted together this past winter here in Philadelphia. A printed piece with a critical essay will accompany the show, and I will be a visiting scholar at Rollins College in September. Stay tuned for details on that. In the meantime, listen to the song “I Found A Reason” by the Velvet Underground.

…

Streamline at C2 Fine Art

July 1 – August 27
C2 Fine Art, St. Petersburg FL

C2 Fine Art Inc. opens on Beach Drive in St. Petersburg, Florida with “Streamline,” an exhibition featuring the work of five abstract painters: Siri Berg, Victor Kord, Carrie Patterson, Camilo Sanin, and Douglas Witmer. The show, organized by Gallery Director Camden Mosesmann and artist, Carrie Patterson presents bold, minimal, geometric abstract paintings that treat the eye and stimulate the mind. The viewer will find that color is a means to create both intimate and monumental works that capture the imagination. Each artist intuitively plays with material defining and redefining the boundaries of contemporary abstraction. I have several paintings from 2008-present in the exhbition.

If you haven’t seen the show, you have a few more days! Fruitville / The School Papers closes April 2.

My thanks to those who made it out to the opening, to the exhibition, to the artist talk, and for all the kind notes/likes via email and Facebook. Because of you, this “little” exhibition definitely had a worldwide audience and impact! There is a good possibility the exhibition will be traveling. Stay tuned for details.

View more images of the exhibition here.
Read a review of the exhibition on The Artblog here.

Fruitville / The School Papers
AxD Gallery
265 S 10th Street, Philadelphia

Please join me this coming Saturday for an informal talk about my current exhibition Fruitville / The School Papers.

Saturday March 19, 3:30pm
AxD Gallery
265 S 10th Street, Philadelphia

View more images of the exhibition here.

February 25 — April 2, 2011
Reception Friday Feb 25, 5-8pm

AxD Gallery
265 S 10th Street
Philadelphia PA 19107

Press Release

AxD Gallery is pleased to present “Fruitville / The School Papers,” an exhibition of two series of intimate abstract works by Philadelphia artist Douglas Witmer. Beginning with found materials, both bodies of work go in unique directions that may surprise those who know Witmer’s widely exhibited reductive geometric paintings. Produced over a span of more than ten years, the artist did not release the works from the studio until 2010. This exhibition marks the East Coast debut for both series, and the first time they will be exhibited together.

Quirky and contemplative assemblages of reclaimed pieces of wood, glue, paper and paint, all titled Fruitville, carry the spirit of Witmer’s well-known minimalist painting to a smaller, but no less diminutive, scale. Each piece is no larger than 8 or 9 inches in any direction. Through subtle surface manipulation and precise additions of bold color Witmer shrewdly elevates scrap wood and found objects to an “art status”. Their deceptive plainness almost dares the viewer to label these works as simply “stuff glued together and tacked on a wall.” In this way the Fruitville objects challenge the relationships found in places that define things and the things that define a place. Witmer underscores this point, explaining the title of the series:

“The Fruitville Pike is a road where I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It’s a major thoroughfare, but it doesn’t go to, from, or through anywhere called Fruitville. My efforts to find Fruitville, if there ever was such a place at all, have been inconclusive.

So Fruitville exists in my imagination as a kind of Eden; a place of purity, clarity, and quiet delight. It manifests itself in an ongoing visual process of experimentation with wood, paint, glue, paper, ink, light, and shadows. The things that make up my Fruitville exist to be in relationship to the places where they can be seen, and also in relationship with each other”

As with Fruitville, The School Papers series offers Witmer another format to extend the exploration of touch and tactility found in his paintings on canvas. They are “drawings” on vintage ruled notepad stock commonly found in grade school classrooms prior to the digital age. The cream color and vertical lines of the paper serve as a surprisingly ideal compliment to Witmer’s painted and drawn geometric forms. Many of the works feature torn edges and heavy wrinkles where the application of paint has altered the smooth surface. These textural imperfections, both planned and accidental, are as vital to the character each the piece as the geometric patterns of paint and the “found” thin blue ruled lines of the paper. Witmer said, “I am continually attracted to the idea of a communal use of power inherent in pure visual forms.” And a meditative quality imbues these works like the Indian Tantra drawings from which the artist says he admires and draws inspiration.

Douglas Witmer’s work has been exhibited internationally. Recent venues include: P.S.1/MoMA, The Painting Center, and Blank Space Art (all NYC), The Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Some Walls (Oakland, CA), The Philadelphia Cathedral, Pharmaka (Los Angeles), The University of Maryland, The University of Dayton (OH), Sydney Non-Objective (Australia), and Bus-Dori Project Space, Tokyo, Japan. His work is in collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He holds a BA from Goshen College, and an MFA from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Greetings from West Philadelphia!

Thank you for following and supporting my work this past year. Happy Holidays!

I wish you and your loved ones peace and fulfillment in 2011.

Sincerely,
Douglas Witmer

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CURRENT
Through January 15, 2011
Informal Relations, curated by Scott Grow
Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indiana More info>>

UPCOMING
February 25-April 2, 2011
Fruitville / The School Papers
AxD Gallery, Philadelphia More info>>

June 20-August 19, 2011
Life of the World to Come–Chase the Tear, curated by Timothy Buckwalter
NIAD Art Center, Richmond CA More info>>

A suite of four of my School Papers drawings, completed between 2006-2010, will be included in the upcoming exhibition “Informal Relations” at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA), opening December 3. The exhibition is curated by Indianapolis artist Scott Grow, and features a terrific international group of people.

Press Release follows:

INFORMAL RELATIONS
contemporary abstract works on paper

December 3rd – January 15th

An opening reception will take place December 3rd from 6pm – 10pm
Gallery hours are Thursday – Saturday 11am – 6pm

1043 Virginia Avenue, Suite 5, Indianapolis, IN 46203
www.indymoca.org

The Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA) is pleased to announce the group exhibition, Informal Relations curated by Indianapolis-based artist and curator Scott Grow.

Informal Relations presents recent abstract works on paper by a diverse group of international artists, and focuses on the diversity of practices–approaches, styles, and intentions–within painting and abstraction today. The exhibition’s title refers to the kind of “informal relations” artists have with one another, their predecessors, with the modernist tradition, the future, and even with their own work. While works on paper may stand as finished works, they are also often places for exploration, thinking, planning, taking chances, and failure.

Abstract art is challenging because of its concrete and/or metaphoric nature which refuses expected representation, its defiance of language and absolute interpretation, and because it requires the viewer’s engagement and participation. And because abstraction is not a singular school or style, the term itself is not necessarily helpful in identifying the qualities or concepts embodied in the art object: artists often naturally have shared and conflicting objectives for the art they make. Abstraction, which lends itself to various aesthetic, conceptual, and political stances, is broadly multiphasic, utilitarian, and flexible.

Each artist presented here confronts, investigates, and presents a definition of abstract painting true to his or her materials, motifs, and sensibilities. Informal Relations explores the similarities, differences, and connections between these artists, their dialog with abstraction’s history, and various directions forward for abstraction.

This exhibition presents the works of 32 artists from across the United States, Germany, Spain and Japan. Participating artists include: Patrick Alt, Chris Ashley, Patrick Berran, Kadar Brock, Matthew Deleget, Laura Fayer, Keltie Ferris, Patrick Michael Fitzgerald, Connie Goldman, Brent Hallard, Rachel Hayes, Jeffrey Cortland Jones, Michael Just, Matthew Langley, Jim Lee, Rossana Martinez, Rob Nadeau, Melissa Oresky, Paul Pagk, Danielle Riede, Maximillian Rodel, Eric Sall, Susan Scott, Gabriel J. Shuldiner, Jessica Snow, Henning Straßburger, Garth Weiser, Wendy White, Paige Williams, Douglas Witmer, Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and John Zurier.

The exhibit will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated, downloadable catalog.

For further information or reproductions please contact Shauta Marsh (smarsh@indymoca.org) or
Scott Grow (scottgrowstudio@gmail.com).