THE PRESENCE OF COLOR
Douglas Witmer (b. 1971) is an American artist living in Philadelphia. He is internationally recognized within the field of reductive geometric abstraction.
The central theme is presence: establishing a visual place that offers an open invitation for a personal experience of seeing and feeling.
In his recent work, Witmer applies paint in thin layers of watercolor. From beginning to end, his interactions with the surface are entirely additive. At times, a wash cascades across the entire face of the painting. Other times, Witmer adds structure using flat brushes or wide bristle brushes. And at other moments, he creates marks through gestural strokes or forms in which the resulting marks will be unexpected or unforeseen—such as deliberately touching wet paints together. The highly fluid nature of this process sets up a challenging dynamic of control and release. Witmer achieves a wide range of emotional results through these fundamental approaches.
In Witmer’s own words: “In the 21st century, I see my work as a clear alternative within a visual culture dominated by speed, layering, and complexity. I don’t believe my work requires any prior knowledge beyond what you bring to it. My hope is that it can activate a sensation that you are simply aware you are seeing. I like to think of that kind of moment as clear, pure, innocent, and solitary. And if you can arrive at that, then in some way you’ve set an experiential engine in motion for yourself, and your thoughts may begin to move in uniquely personal directions.”
His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world. Solo museum exhibitions include the Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN (2023) and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL (2011). Other venues include MoMA PS1, Minus Space, The Curator Gallery, and The Painting Center (all in New York); The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia); Hemphill Fine Arts (Washington, DC); ICON Contemporary Art (Brunswick, ME); Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art; Gray Contemporary (Houston); Gebert Contemporary (Santa Fe); University of Maryland; University of Dayton; Galerie Biesenbach (Germany); ParisCONCRET (France); Sydney Non-Objective (Australia); and Sol del Río Arte Contemporáneo (Guatemala City). His work is held in the collections of the Woodmere Art Museum; the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska; the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia; and The Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as numerous corporate and private collections internationally.