Ben Woitena "Duality of Form" by Foltz Fine Art

BEN WOITENA D U A L I T Y OF FORM

JANUARY 27 - FEBRUARY 24,

Foltz FINE ART

2024

Ben Woitena: Duality of Form

On view January 27 - February 24, 2024 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 well as 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. Twodimensional 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] [1] Ben Woitena. Ben Woitena: A Retrospective (1963-2008). The Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum. [2] John DeFore, “A public sculptor’s intimate side”, San Antonio Current, ArtSpace, p. 15, March 15-21, 2001. [3] Ben Woitena. Ben Woitena: A Retrospective (1963-2008). The Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum. [4] Ben Woitena. Ben Woitena: A Retrospective (1963-2008). The Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum. [5] Ben Woitena. Ben Woitena: A Retrospective (1963-2008). The Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum

BEN WOITENA: DUALITY OF FORM ARTIST STATEMENT The world I inhabit is based on intuition and spontaneity, its detail tempered, alternately, through meditation and intense concentration. The genesis of each work — whether drawn, in steel, wood, or stone — is a construct of spontaneous decisions coalesced into the refined image. I do not produce sculptures from drawings; however my drawings are derived from the same process utilized in my sculpture. This process of cross-pollination can occur when colors and textures in the drawings become surface textures in the sculptures, and when sculptural materials become components of the drawings. A single chisel mark on a field stone is analogous to an initial mark made on a blank drawing surface. Thus, such marks determine the content of a resultant image. For the past sixty years the duality of this formative approach to creativity has been the basis for my total body of work. Although the imageries are autobiographical, they are neither narrative nor appropriated, nor are they renderings of impressions: they are the manifestations of sensory experiences realized over time. This work does not relate to media-derived images or social signs awaiting deconstruction. Rather, the sculptures require the long look. An early educational emphasis on the figure — modeled in the round — led to my belief that sculpture (figurative and nonrepresentational) should be viewed in the round because components form relationships through various configurations engaging the viewer to walk around the work. Figurative and non-representational sculptures’ significance is derived both from the viewer circumnavigating the work and from the sculptor’s use of the size of the hand to the body. The power of both evokes the spiritual through contemplation. Beyond content, my primary consideration is the quality of execution for permanence, not personality-driven, short-range spectacles that are dependent upon nostalgia and sentimentality. The content of this collection evolved through the afterimages of meditation on self-awareness, visual perceptions and imagistic immediacy. — Ben Woitena What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things…it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface. — Constantin Brancusi Art is an imitation of the nature of things, not of their appearances. — Ananda K. Coomaraswamy When one reaches this state of harmony between things and one's self, one reaches a state of perfect freedom and peace, which makes everything possible and right. Life becomes perpetual revelation. — Georges Braque

Foltz Fine Art

Ben Woitena: Duality of Form Sculpture

2143 Westheimer Houston, TX 77098 713.521.7500 www.foltzgallery.com

Ben Woitena He Knows Nothing Of The Flame, 2008 MDF board, paint, aluminum sheet, felt, white caulk 50.75 x 74.75 x 3.50 in $24,500.00

Ben Woitena Wooing The Light, 2008 MDF board, paint, copper sheet, glass beads, felt, caulk 50.50 x 74.75 x 3.50 in $24,500.00

Ben Woitena Calypso, 2015 Paint, steel, wire rope, “core box” wood 14.25 x 20.50 x 5.25 in $13,500.00

Ben Woitena Sword Dance, 2009 Patinated silicon bronze 20.25 x 30.50 x 19 in $15,000.00

Ben Woitena Cause of Dawn, 2007 Masonite, paint, felt dots, glass beads 19 x 49 x 1.75 in $6,000.00

Ben Woitena Easy Rider, 1987 Painted steel, burnished brass 9 x 27 x 5 in $9,000.00

10.

Ben Woitena Grey Mist Passing, 2011-12 Bardillil “madre de terra” gray marble and steel plow parts 11.50 x 23.50 x 5.50 in $18,000.00

Ben Woitena Evergreen Review, c. 1978 painted steel 20 x 21 x 13 in $6,000.00

11.

Ben Woitena Winter’s Blend, 2015 Painted steel, copper tubes, travertine 13.25 x 37 x 7.50 in $7,500.00

12.

Ben Woitena Summer Solstice, 1999 Stainless steel, copper tube, paint 36 x 36 x 10.75 in $9,000.00

Ben Woitena String Theory, 2014 Enamel paint, graphite, ball point pen, string 22 x 30 x 1.50 in $4,500.00

Ben Woitena Night Hawk, 2012 Soapstone, Colorado Yule marble, green travertine 15.50 x 12 x 12 in $7,500.00

13.

Ben Woitena Bleu, 2005 Painted steel 15.50 x 30 x 11 in $10,500.00

21.

Ben Woitena Tumbler, 2011 Polished silicon bronze, brass, paint 6 x 8.50 x 6 in $3,000.00

14.

22. Ben Woitena White Light, 2006 Colorado Yule marble, serpentine, painted brass rod 7.25 x 21 x 8.50 in $21,000.00

Ben Woitena Boogie Nights, 2014 Paper over Masonite, paint, graphite 22 x 30 x 1.50 in $4,500.00

15.

23. Ben Woitena Out of Bounds, 2007 Masonite, paint, graphite, Sharpie pens, paper, glass beads, dowels 21 x 49 x 1.75 in $4,500.00

Ben Woitena Sunset Radiance, 2022 Cast silicon bronze, polished and patinated, painted steel 11 x 10 x 5.50 in $7,500.00

16.

24. Ben Woitena Darkness Passed Steel diamond plate, wire rope & angle iron 12.50 x 31.25 x 0.75 in $4,500.00

Ben Woitena Horizon, 2002 Mesquite, patinated copper, brass, marble 5.50 x 25.75 x 5 in $13,500.00

17.

Ben Woitena Around Midnight, 1999 Steel, patinated & polished copper tube 18 x 28.75 x 15 in $10,500.00

25.

Ben Woitena Ancestral Eyes, 2002 Burnished and patinated cast silicon bronze 10 x 9.25 x 8.50 in $16,500.00

18.

Ben Woitena 26. Before Now, 2007 Wood panel, paint, graphite, patinated bronze filings, felt, solder wire, plastic, balsa wood 39.50 x 59.50 x 1.75 in $10,500.00

Ben Woitena Screen, 2014 Masonite, paint, balsa wood, wood frame 22 x 30 x 1.75 in $4,500.00

19.

27. Ben Woitena Edge of Middle Ground, 2018 Carved marble, patinated silicon bronze 8.50 x 13.75 x 7.50 in $9,000.00

Ben Woitena Bodhi, 1983 Painted steel, polished brass tube 31 x 33 x 10.50 in $10,500.00

20.

28. Ben Woitena Thruway Rhythm, 2012-13 Texas Walnut on Patinated silicone bronze base 21.50 x 31 x 11 in $27,000.00

Ben Woitena Knight Rider, 2009 Polished and patinated silicon bronze 7.25 x 21 x 8.50 in $12,000.00

29.

Ben Woitena Double Down, 2010 Cast silicon bronze, Travertine base, brass rods, paint 9 x 7.50 x 21 in $15,000.00

30.

Ben Woitena Circle Round, 2010 Patinated cast silicon bronze, wood sand cast form 10 x 10 x 10 in $12,000.00

31.

Ben Woitena Mirror's Edge, 2011 Green travertine, Colorado Yule marble, cast bronze 15 x 11 x 6.75 in $10,500.00

32.

Ben Woitena Sun Fall, 2002 Carved mesquite, mahogany base and wax polish 18.75 x 22 x 14 in $21,000.00

Foltz Fine Art

Ben Woitena: Duality of Form Sculpture

Ben Woitena He Knows Nothing Of The Flame, 2008 MDF board, paint, aluminum sheet, felt, white caulk 50.75 x 74.75 x 3.50 in $24,500.00 Exhibition History: 2010, Point Counter Point, San Jacinto College (south campus), Houston, Texas (solo exhibition)