January 27 - February 24, 2024
From Foltz Fine Art:
“On view from January 27 – February 24, 2024, Foltz Fine Art is honored to present Ben Woitena: Duality of Form, in this inaugural exhibition at their Houston gallery. While Woitena is a seasoned artist whose been active in the Houston art scene since the 1970s, whose work has been widely exhibited and collected by important institutions throughout his career, Foltz hopes to bring his work to the attention of a new generation of art collectors and enthusiasts. While Woitena is best known for his monumental public sculptural works, it was in fact his petite drawings, often measuring 4 x 6 inches, that initially captivated the gallerist. Fascinated by the dialogue occurring between Woitena’s intimate, 2-dimensional drawings and his diverse, 3-dimensional sculptures, the gallery is excited to be able to present this engaging exhibition. Duality of Form encompasses drawings, mixed media works, and sculptures in cast bronze, stone, various metals and wood. The interplay of these works in scale and media are sure to delight as wellas challenge viewers.
In their purest forms, Woitena’s bronze, steel, and wood sculptures blatantly declare their origins. In their most wily forms, he intercedes to mediate the meaning of what it is to be bronze, steel, or wood.[1] In viewing the sculpture alongside a collection of recent drawings, created largely over the past five years, the “extravagance” of these small drawings with their “… implied echoes of nature are quite beautiful … hav[ing] been completely integrated with the abstract compositions, use[ing] a wider palette of colors, and he seems thoroughly comfortable that in the drawings, geometric forms intersect and combine with more organic ones, and space is filled alternatingly with pure color and intricately drawn patterns. Two-dimensional barriers are broken, and a third dimension is suggested…”[2]
Born in San Antonio in 1942, Woitena received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1964, where he served as lab assistant and was the student of Professor Charles Umlauf. There, Woitena was formally educated in the figural tradition of drawing, clay modeling, and carving. He received his MFA in 1970 from the University of Southern California on scholarship as a teaching assistant under the tutelage of Professor Hal Gebhardt. From 1971 through 1998, Woitena was head of sculpture at the Glassell School of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston, Texas, where he currently resides.[3] Throughout his career, Woitena has been widely exhibited and has a long history of participation in monumental invitational exhibitions, nationally.[4]
Woitena, primarily recognized for his monumental works, is represented in the collections of corporations, individuals, municipalities, and museums nationally. Selected collections include: Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, Texas; City of Abilene, Texas; City of Houston, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; City of Lowell, Massachusetts; City of Texas City, Texas; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas; Museum of the Southeast, Beaumont, Texas; JH Partners, Investment Builders, Houston, Texas; Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas, Dallas (Irving), Texas; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas; The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York; The Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texas; The Woodlands Corporation, The Woodlands, Texas; Trammell Crow Company, Irving, Texas; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas; and many more.[5]
Ben Woitena: Duality of Form will be on view at Foltz Fine Art in Houston, Texas from January 27 – February 24, 2024. An opening reception with the artist is scheduled for Saturday, January 27th from 4-7pm. For more information, please contact [email protected].”
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