Dennis Wojtkiewiczs: Fruitism

Dennis Wojtkiewicz [voit-KEV-itch] is a full professor at Bowling Green State University where he has taught painting and drawing in the School of Art since 1988. He received his M.F.A. degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and also studied at the Atelier Neo-Medici in France under the direction of Patrick Betaudier in 1978 and 1983. He is best known for his exploration of the sensitive nature of time in his oversized oil paintings of fruit and flowers. The transitory nature of his subject matter is encapsulated and transfixed with a heightened approach to realism. In 2012 his work was included in a solo exhibition at the Sugarman-Peterson Gallery in Santa Fe as well as group shows at Robert Kidd Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan and Miller Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2013 he will be a featured artist in Art Revolution Taipei international art fair. Since 2005 his work has been shown in other international art fairs in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Palm Beach, Santa Fe and Toronto. He is the recipient of two Ohio Arts Council Individual Fellowships and has both paintings and drawings represented in major public, private and corporate collections.Dennis Wojtkiewicz took his still-life paintings to another level when he decided to work with fruit. Attracted to the inside of pieces of everyday fruit—the seeds, veins, and the translucent flesh and color changes—Dennis renders them in large-scale using oil on canvas. The most amazing aspect, though, isnot only the detail of each piece, but the way he incorporates a light effect that makes them seem to glow from the surface. His series mainly include Citrus, Melon, Lemon, and Peach.”THE MORE I FOCUSED ON THEM, THE MORE FASCINATING THEY BECAME. IN COMPARISON TO MY EARLIER, MORE CONVENTIONAL STILL LIFES, THE NEW PAINTINGS TRANSCEND A TECHNICAL MASTERY TO ELICIT MORE MEANINGFUL ASSOCIATIONS”.