Nina Johnson is proud to present Sunday Kind of Love, an exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Nicole Wittenberg, on view by appointment from September 10th through October 10th, 2015.
Nicole Wittenberg renders the world in exuberant strokes of paint and soft pastels. After leaving her New York City studio to weather the pandemic in Maine with friends, Wittenberg was deeply affected by the natural opulence of the landscape. As spring turned to summer, she has been immersed in the colors, movement, and changes of the world around her. These paintings and drawings act as records of visual exhilaration.
“They’re about sensation—the feeling of people, places, and things. I wanted to record them really quickly and in high chroma,” explains Wittenberg when discussing the series. Despite the urgency of her mark-making, there is a specificity and intimacy in each work. Even the trees are presented as though they are portraits of close friends. “I don’t see any difference between the landscapes and portraits; they’re all a measure of experience and sensation.”
The color palette amplifies Wittenberg’s emotive marks, revealing the inherent extravagance of the natural world. A green so dark it veers on black creates visual rhymes with neon chartreuse, sage, and Kelly green as glowing yellow sunlight peeks behind branches and tree tops. The same deeply saturated hues continue in the portraits of two seated subjects, whose orange skin hints at days spent in the sun. Wittenberg’s marks become even looser in the portraits, conveying a contented relaxed atmosphere. “When you’re chasing a feeling it’s not about depicting something with photorealism,” says Wittenberg. “Sometimes things don’t look the way they feel.”
About Nicole Wittenberg
Nicole Wittenberg (b. 1979, San Francisco, CA) lives and works in New York City. She has exhibited at Nina Johnson Gallery in Miami, FL, as well as Skarstedt Gallery, NY; Journal Gallery, NY; Yours Mine Ours Gallery, NY; Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria; among others.
