By Chris Ashley
Accompanied the exhibition of the same title. Some Walls, Oakland, CA, June 2010.

Well-known for his paintings, most recently widely-exhibited works with precisely-placed bars of evocative color that float on casual-appearing yet skillfully-intercepted washy black-stained canvas grounds, Douglas Witmer’s Fruitville series might initially appear to be quite a different direction for the artist. The appearance of three dimensional art objects, small and intimate at no more than eight inches in any direction, might seem sudden, but actually Witmer has slowly worked on this series with great consideration for over ten years. These pieces have never been shown with his paintings, and in fact they have never before been publicly shown at all except on the artist’s web site. The Fruitville series are interestingly connected to Witmer’s paintings, and spark additional dialog about his overall ongoing project. More…




