New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
First Fridays
November 6, 5:00–7:30 PM
Free and open to the public. All ages welcome.
Gallery Hours
12:00–4:00 PM, Monday–Friday
Sponsors
The reception is sponsored by Blenheim Vineyards.
Exhibition Statement (provided by the artist)
Clay Witt’s paintings evoke the fluctuating space between the preternatural world and mythology. His idiosyncratic technique aspires to the practice of a ritualized religious art, combining a series of meticulous processes that incorporates mineral, vegetal, and animal materials into luminous images that underscore the obscure atmosphere of the subject matter.
Each piece incorporates many layers of mineral glazes, abraded and burnished to mimic the patina of natural materials. Trees and waves of cut Japanese paper are collaged within these layers, adding graphic definition to the organic space. The animals and flames sit proud from the surface, carved from marble gesso, gilded, and burnished to a glowing shine, then selectively covered with additional glazes that unite their shallow relief with the layers below. The result is a complex visual and intellectual narrative, simultaneously familiar and disorienting.
About the Artist (provided by the artist)
Clay Witt lives and works in Charlottesville. He received a BA in Painting and Printmaking from the University of Virginia and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the University of Massachusetts.
Image courtesy of the artist: “An Invitation to the Cave,” (2014-15). Cut Japanese paper, mineral pigments, hide glue, marble dust, polymer emulsion, bole, and gold leaf on linen over panel, 48″ x 72″.
