Early 2024 news from the studio

Happy 2024!

This is kind of a special year for me. It’s the 30th anniversary of my first art exhibition! I’m planning a variety of things to celebrate throughout the year. More about that below, but first…

The year begins with two exhibitions…

Douglas Witmer - Currents

is currently on view at Mercer County College, West Windsor campus, New Jersey. This show features my 2020 painting and music suite “Forty, For You” and a selection of recent larger works. On view through March 29.

There are several related events next Wednesday, February 7

Public lecture, 11:45am

Livestream walk-thru Q&A on my Instagram, 4pm

Public reception, 5pm

Click here for directions to the gallery

Get a reminder

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ACHROMATIC at Galerie Biesenbach, Cologne

On view through March 9

An international group exhibition with works by Árpád Forgó, José Gomes, Beate Höing, Patrizia Kränzlein, Ji Eun Lee, Catherine Seher, Austin Turley, Douglas Witmer  and Hideaki Yamanobe

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30th Anniversary Drawing “Jubilee”

I always have some kind of drawing activity going on, but 2023 took things to a different level for me…and took me into some different directions. Since last spring I’ve made hundreds and hundreds of drawings in small sketchbooks…all at a uniform size of about 2.75 x 2.25 inches. Making these has really revived a connection to my younger artist self in a way that’s incredibly invigorating. My drawing life is basically 100% joy. To kick off the celebration of the 30th year exhibiting my work, I’d like to make you a drawing! No kidding. Finding ways to keep real analogue art accessible to people has always been important to me, so for this little project, in the spirit of a jubilee, I’m letting you name the price. There’s no catch…except that you can only have one, and you have to let me know by February 10. I won’t be sending any follow ups about this…it’s just something for this moment…

Birthday works on paper sale -- Ends September 1

It’s my birthday this week (August 29)…I turn 52 this year!

To celebrate, I’m offering $52 off all of my drawings 2017-present (reg $325) -AND/OR- all drawings 2016 and earlier, plus some other works on paper are only $52ea.

Take $52 off any drawing you see here

All works pictured below on this page are $52

(plus applicable shipping)

Questions? Email me!

"Forty, For You" -- Philadelphia Pop-up May 20-21

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT BY DOWNLOADING THE MUSIC AND ART AT THE LINK ABOVE ($20)

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On February 26, 2020 I began to make and present the painting/music suite "Forty, For You.” The idea was designed as an opportunity to give someone a contemplative experience within the endless/mindless Instagram scroll. Each day for 40 days I created and released an image accompanied by an original ambient music composition.

Shortly after the project began it took on an unforeseen significance, unfolding against the backdrop of the global coronavirus pandemic. The 40-day nature of the work corresponded to the idea of quarantine, with hundreds of millions of people sheltering at home. I received many responses from people telling me the color and music experience was something they looked forward to each day. As I look back on that forty day period of making the paintings, composing and performing music, I recognize it was definitely sustaining me as well.

Though the project was introduced virtually, I also intended for it to work as an in-person experience.

The series made its physical debut earlier this year in an intimate niche gallery as part of my exhibition "Douglas Witmer -- Call & Response" which recently closed at the Midwest Museum of American Art in Elkhart IN.

Now I'm very pleased to make the series available for in-person viewing in Philadelphia. Please join me to experience "Forty, For You" in a beautifully day-lit room at a location just down the street from my West Philadelphia studio. RSVP is not required, but it is helpful info for me. 

FORTY FOR YOU, Philadelphia pop-up exhibition

May 20-21, 1-5 pm

Studio 303

4111 Lancaster Avenue Philadelphia

Douglas Witmer -- "Call and Response" opens at The Midwest Museum of American Art

Douglas Witmer--Call and Response
January 13 - March 5, 2023
I will present an artist talk on Thursday, February 2, and be in attendance for the Museum's Winter Party on Friday, February 3.

Here is the Museum press release:

The exhibition “Douglas Witmer – Call and Response” is a multi-faceted project that highlights the artist’s recent work, while demonstrating the integral relationship between an artist and a museum and the dialogues artists form with art that comes before them. For this exhibition, the Museum invited Witmer to curate works from the collection to be installed in conversation with his work. Witmer created several new large-scale paintings for this show. And the Museum is proud to publicly debut Witmer’s major 2020 work “Forty, For You,” a 40-piece suite of paintings and original music compositions intended as a contemplative experience.

Witmer’s relationship to The Midwest Museum of American Art began in the early 1990s when, as a student at Goshen College, he met, studied-under and occasionally assisted MMAA director Brian Byrn, forming an ongoing friendship. Since then Witmer has become internationally-known within the field of reductive abstract painting, steadily pursuing what he calls “a personal inquiry” into the materiality of the painted object.

Regarding his recent work, Witmer says, “My enduring subject is the exploration of painted presence. I consider each painting a unique place offering an open invitation into a contemplative experience of seeing and feeling. I achieve this using a highly process-driven approach within the framework of a kind of formalist abstraction. I activate  elemental compositions with sensuous color and improvised and incidental actions. Working in thin watery layers, I establish rectilinear structures that I subject to accident-like situations where resulting marks cannot be expected or anticipated. The fluidity of the paint and my process sets up challenging dynamics of control and release. In my painting I calibrate the tension of these dynamics towards expressive outcomes.”

Studio News -- Fall 2022

The studio is currently overflowing with new work in progress that I'm looking forward to completing. Upcoming over the next few months are an open studio and a solo museum show. Read on!

YOU'RE INVITED!
OPEN STUDIO & PARTY
In October, please join me at my studio in West Philadelphia. I will debut brand-new larger scale paintings and I'm planning some other surprises as well.

INVITE-ONLY STUDIO PARTY
Saturday October 15, 7-10pm
REQUEST INVITE for more details

OPEN STUDIO - as part of Philadelphia Open Studios Tour 2022
Sunday October 16, noon-6pm

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UPCOMING MUSEUM SOLO

Douglas Witmer : Call & Response
The Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart IN
January 13 -- March 5, 2023
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This is a very exciting project for me on several fronts. It achieves a big goal for me as the Museum will present my art-and-music suite "Forty, For You" (2020) in physical form to the public. Additionally I have been invited to co-curate artworks from the museum's collection which will be installed in dialogue with brand new work created for the exhibition. More details forthcoming.