THEODORE:ART
56 Bogart Street, Brooklyn, New York 11206
theodoreart.com 212 966 4324 theodoreart@gmail.com

Andrew Witkin
“that dear old picture on the wall”

September 6 - October 20, 2019, Friday 1 - 8 PM, Saturday - Sunday 1 - 6 PM
opening reception: 6 - 8 PM, Friday, September 6
walk-through: 3 PM, Sunday, September 8

Andrew Witkin, with assistance, collaboration, guidance, influence and other forms of interaction from a large assortment of people (see below for an incomplete list)(, has created an installation that ponders the concept of clarity. Using massive quantities of information as both visual and conceptual subject matter, Witkin presents an installation of custom woven fabrics, newspaper clippings and photography, among other materials and processes.

A heightened attention to framing (both physical ‘fine art’ frames and the framing of ‘vignettes’ in the space) guides a viewer’s experiences. Architectural interventions add layers of visibility yet challenge paths of motion. The interventions (‘walls’, of a sort) also serve as supports for framed, stacked and folded objects. Hanging on these newly built ‘walls’ are frames dense with collections of formally related newspaper clippings that both obfuscate data and illuminate patterns. Taken together, the elements and scenarios are as much a question of how to read and feel about contemporary life as they are about formal issues of exhibition-, image-, object- and place- making. Where is the place for wistfulness and sentimentality? Can one be emotional and calculated? If something is dense can it also be welcoming? The project balances between specificity and generality, choice and chance, casualness and skill, and information and intuition.

Andrew Witkin’s exhibitions have happened at the Currier Museum of Art, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, University of New Hampshire Museum of Art, as well as at galleries such as Allston Skirt Gallery, Boston, Theodore:Art, New York and James Harris Gallery, Seattle. Works are in the collections of the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle,  Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the University of New Hampshire Museum of Art. He has executed site-responsive works in locations as diverse as Big Bend National Park, Texas, Damascus, Syria, Naples, Italy, and a long-term project is in the works in New Hampshire.

This project was made with the assistance of Agnes Chaffee, Agnes Martin, Alan Belcher, Alicia Mihai Gazcue, Alissa Farber, Allan McCollum, Alvin Case, Alvin Lucier, Amanda Brown, Amy Baker Sandback, Amy Witkin, Ana Tiscornia, Andrea Anastasio, Andrea Pitsch, Andrew Spindler, Anni Albers, Aretha Franklin, Artemis Kirk, Arthur Miller, Athena Kirk, August Ventimiglia, Ava Restuccia, Barbara Krakow, Barbara Moskowitz, Ben Chaffee, Ben Nelson, Beth Kantrowitz, Beverly Bernson, Bill Callahan, Bill Jacobson, Bill Lassiter, Bill Wyman, Billy Winkworth, Bo Jackson, Bob White, Brendan Greaves, Brian Buckley, Brian Jones, Brian Zink, Bronlyn Jones, Candace Doherty, Carl Andre, Carol Salmonson, Cary Leibowitz, Ceal Floyer, Celia Pym, Chad Joiner, Charles Gaines, Charles Mingus, Charlie Watts, Charmaine Wheatley, Christine Jones, Constantin Brancusi, Daiki Suzuki, Damon Krukowski, Dan Restuccia, Daniel Scholnick, David Fine, David Freilach, David Gray, David Marks, David Roberts, David X. Levine, Dick Albright, Dina Deitsch, Don Herbert, Dottie Witkin, Douglas Weathersby, Drew Volpe, Duane Allman, Edward Nygren, Elaine Sturtevant, Ellen Berkman, Elsa Moisey, Emily Isenberg, Eric Brown, Erwin Heerich, F. Carlo Schmid, Felix Salmon, Garth Hudson, George Adams, Giovanni Anselmo, Giuseppe Penone, Grace Waper, Hanne Darboven, Hans Memling, Herman Melville, Hiram Butler, Holly Getch Clarke, Ian Stewart, Irma Thomas, Jacopo Tintoretto, Jay Glushien, Jean-Yves Noblet, Jeff Bergman, Jen Mergel, Jenine Shereos, Jenny Watkins, Jenny Winkworth, Jeremy Ziemann, Jerry Ragovoy, Jerry Wapner, Jerry Wexler, Jess Rosner, Jill Slossburg-Ackerman, Jim Harris, Joe Salonis, Joe Scanlan, John Bettis, John Cage, John Dewey, John Hanlin, John Kirk, John Kramer, John O’Neal, John Paoletti, John Stuart Gordon, Jon Pucker, Jordan Rosenblum, Josh Pazda, Judith Butler, Kaatje Cusse, Kai Winding, Karen Nelson, Kate Shepherd, Kay Rosen, Keith Richards, Kenneth Goldsmith, Kevin Garnett, Kimon Kirk, La Monte Young, Lara Cocken, Laurie Parsons, Leah Medin, Leah Witkin, Lee Mingwei, Leslie Paoletti, Levon Helm, Lila Kanner, Liliana Porter, Lisa Krakow, Lisa Theorle, Lisa Young, Loki Kornfeld, Luis Croquer, Marcel Broodthaers, Marcel Duchamp, Marion Cohen, Marsha Ginsberg, Martha Rosler, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Mary O’Grady, Masako Glushien, Matt Saunders, Merce Cunningham, Micah Lexier, Michael Asher, Michael Bernstein, Michael Jackson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Michelle Fornabai, Michelle Vaughan, Mick Jagger, Mike Glier, Milton Kornfeld, Naomi Yang, Natalia Valeria Porter Bolland, Natasha Bernstein, Nate Douglass, Nina Felshin, Norman Meade, Otomo Yoshihide, Patrick Martin, Paula Soares, Peter Ballantine, Peter Downsbrough, Peter Flaherty, Peter Gidal, Peter Kaye, Peter Nesbett, Peter Sandback, Pieranna Cavalchini, Puffin D’Oench, Quincy Jones, Rachael Arauz, Rachael Cross, Rajiv Dayal, Randy Hopkins, Rebecca Solnit, Rei Kawakubo, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Rob Alexander, Robbie Robertson, Robert Barry, Robert Bauer, Robert Feldman, Robert Huot, Robert Lax, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman, Roger Conover, Ronnie Hawkins, Ryan Cross, Samantha Topol, Sarah Baker, Sarah Kornfeld, Shellburne Thurber, Shelly Bancroft, Simon Lince, Skyela Heitz, Sol LeWitt, Stephanie Theodore, Stephen Prina, Steve Lubar, Steve Porcaro, Steve Reich, Susan Stoops, Susanna Singer, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Tatyana Gubash, Terry Albright, Tim Albright, Tony Cokes, Tony Feher, Topher Cox, Vito Tulimiero, Walter Payton, Wanda Isenberg, Will Oldham, Will Turvey, Wilson Pickett, Yosef Glushien, Yves Klein, Ziv Bernstein and Zoe Restuccia, among others

• Bird's eye view of the gallery with the project's layout

• untitled, 2007 - 2019
• pine and metal hardware
• 336 x 240 x 100 inches

• untitled, 2016 -
• pulped office paper (six months of paper from Krakow Witkin Gallery), pulped credit card receipts (one sphere per month) and table tennis balls
• installation dimensions vary

• untitled, 2010 -
  
• walnut frames with associated framing materials, walnut plywood, walnut hanging cleats and light-jet photographs of closed-off doorways within the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria
  
• four photographs, each framed in a walnut frame, with a walnut plywood back, as well as a walnut hanging cleat
  
• two walnut frames, each with walnut plywood back and walnut plywood front (both are the “same”)
  
• two empty walnut frames
  
• one walnut frame with walnut plywood back and colored mat board front
  
• installation dimensions vary, this installation utilizing nine elements: approximately 25 x 19 x 1 ½ inches each
  
• each variant object is an edition of 4 with 2 aps

• untitled, 2005 - 2019
  
• a binder of notes on this project’s formation, two binders with letterpress-printed texts about the seemingly contradictory definitions of a riot, and a used valise
  
• 2 x 37 x 11 inches

• untitled, 2007 - 2019 -
  
• newspaper clippings that cross a newspaper’s gutter, shrinkwrap, museum board, powder-coated aluminum frame
• 24 ¾ x 27 x 1 ½ inches

• untitled, 2007 - 2019 - 
• newspaper clippings that cross a newspaper’s gutter, shrinkwrap, museum board, powder-coated aluminum frame
• 21 ¼ x 32 ½ x 1 ½ inches

• untitled, 2004 - 2019
  
• eighteen copies of a 36-page book:
  
• In 2004, Witkin photographed a husband and wife’s gravestones in a burial ground in southern New Hampshire. The wife’s headstone no longer stood on its own and had been placed resting against the husband’s headstone. In 2012, Witkin placed a photo of the husband’s gravestone in a frame, as was that of the wife’s. In 2014, two frames, of the same proportions, without photographic imagery, were also made. In 2015, both pairs were arranged in a field in northern New Hampshire, in the same ‘pose’ of the original stones. The book displays photos of these pairs of ‘surrogate’ headstones as they dealt with the weather through the seasons. The work consists of eighteen copies of the book that are misprinted (the images bleed off the pages to the left and right, but not top and bottom).
  
• 8 x 68 x 2 inches

• untitled, 2007 - 2019 - 
• newspaper clippings that cross a newspaper’s gutter, shrinkwrap, museum board, powder-coated aluminum frame
• 24 x 31 ¾ x 1 ½ inches

• untitled, 2007 - 2019 - 
• newspaper clippings that cross a newspaper’s gutter, shrinkwrap, museum board, powder-coated aluminum frame
• 20 ¼ x 31 ½ x 1 ½ inches

• untitled, 2011 - 2019 -
  
• woven and dyed cotton in four parts. Two parts (each with a consistent warp but an ever-changing weft) were woven by the wonderful, but sadly recently deceased, Joe Salonis at Gateway Arts In Brookline, Massachusetts, under the guidance of Jenine Shereos and Leah Medin. The other two parts were produced on a digital jacquard loom, with one displaying a slow diagonal transition from brown to grey and the other displaying a brown to black transition.
• Installation dimensions vary, this installation: approximately 90 x 11 x 3 inches

• untitled, 2007 - 2019 - 
• newspaper clippings that cross a newspaper’s gutter, shrinkwrap, museum board, powder-coated aluminum frame
• 19 x 26 ½ x 1 ½ inches

• untitled, 2007 - 2019 - 
• newspaper clippings that cross a newspaper’s gutter, shrinkwrap, museum board, powder-coated aluminum frame
• 18 x 29 ¼ x 1 ½ inches

• untitled, 2006 -
  
• ocean-smoothed red brick, machine-tumbled limestone, natural cork, table tennis balls, lacrosse ball, birch plywood, joint compound and plaster
  
• installation dimensions vary