Hannah Witner

STATEMENT

My work spans from colorful, surrealist, and psychological oil paintings, whimsical sculptures, and experimental & commercial design. Approaching my work with figurative irreverence, biomorphisms, tableaus of existential dilemmas as a measure of the contemporary human condition, I find a peculiar balance.

Combining humanoids with an expansive array of visual material and immense play of colors, I begin in consciousness and transience. My work combines touches of reality with meta-fiction and comedy and reflects our disorder, dissociation, detachment, individualism, and weird minutia of the human condition.

Other themes such as dissociation, detachment, individualism, and transience play a major role in the majoritively abstract figurative work. Sometimes absurd and riddled with dark humor, the work allows the viewer to confront questions I have posed in a more serene way.

It echoes the phenomena of the subconscious through morphing characters, figures in motion, and layers of consciousness and reality through bold juxtaposition of line, color, and shape. The new way that we must move through the world in a post-modern society is explored by the constant state of movement and deformity that the body takes, on it’s own and in conjunction with others.

I poke at the flawed and unexplained through painting and illustration, expressing a disorderliness that is both humorous and amorphic. I hope my new bodies of work read as an exploration into the boundaries that comics and cartoons can push into traditional and non-traditional painting techniques and experimental forms.

I have been working with the juxtaposition between the intense high frequency of chaos balanced with low frequency moments of rumination. Primordial and apocalyptic; sweeping and specific; humorous and biological: all exploring the chaos and order of moments in between what we can actually see.

BIO

Hannah Witner is a multidisciplinary visual artist and innovative designer. She is a North Carolina-born, NYC-based creator who began her love of art around age 3, and has been learning ever since. She graduated at the top of her class with a BFA in Integrated Design from Parsons School for Design at the end of 2018.

Hannah has been a merit studio resident at NG Art Creative Residency (Provence, France), Nes Artist Residency (Skagaströnd, Iceland), Zaratan Arte Contemporânea (Lisbon, Portugal), The Bowery Union (formerly ConArtist Collective NYC; NYC), C-3 Lab (Charlotte, NC, USA), and in 2020-2021 will participate in residencies across eastern and western Europe. Hannah is represented by PIAPH Gallery in New York City and is a part of a number of artist-run art collectives in NYC. She has exhibited across the USA including many in NYC, as well as Lisbon and St. Petersburg; she has work in private collections across the US, as well as in Portugal, France, and Germany.

EXHIBITIONS/SHOWS/COMMISSIONS

RESIDENCIES
2022; Resident Artist, D'Clinic Studio; Zalaegerszeg, Hungary
2022; Resident Artist, Belgrade Art Studio; Belgrade, Serbia
2021; Project Studio, Goodyear Arts; Charlotte, USA
2021; Resident Artist, Buinho Artist Residency; Messejana, Portugal
2020; Guest Resident Artist, NG Art Creative Guest Residency; Eygalières, Provence, France
2020; Resident Artist, Nes Artist Residency; Skagaströnd, Iceland
2020; Resident Artist, Zaratan Arte Contemporânea; Lisbon, Portugal
2020 & 2021; Studio Artist, C-3 Lab; Charlotte, USA
2019; Studio Artist and Collective Member, The Bowery Union (formerly Con Artist Collective); New York, USA

PUBLICATIONS/PRESS:
2022; Interview with AucArt
2021; Online: Interview with Visionary Art Collective
2021; Print: Aesthetica Magazine
2021; Online: EmbraceCreatives.com | Home Page Feature
2021: Online: Artist Profile Video Interview with Solas Studio
2021; Online: The Painting Center NYC
2021; Online: booooooom.com | High Frequency
2021; Online: Gallery M&Art agents - Museum of Contemporary Art, Artplu in Shanghai, China
2020; Print: Friend of the Artist Book: Volume 11
2020; Online: ArtJobs.com | Portrait Submission


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2023; SOLO; Hannah Witner; Solas Studio; New York, NY
2022; SOLO; Hannah Witner: Red Flamingo; D'Clinic Studio; Zalaegerszeg, Hungary
2022; April Showcase, Solas Studio, New York, NY
2021; Winter Showcase, Solas Studio, New York, NY
2021; June Summer Showcase, Solas Studio, New York, NY
2021; FunHaus (guest curator Tiffany Street), Solas Studio, New York, NY
2021; ArtAuc Finder Auction, London, UK (Virtual)
2021; Atopos, The Holy Art, London, UK (Virtual)
2021; Spring Showcase, Solas Studio; New York, NY
2020; Creatures, Beasts, and Myths; The Vacant Museum; Virtual
2020; SOLO; Hannah Witner: To Be, Zaratan Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal
2020; Street Gallery Project Retrospective, The Bowery Collective, New York, NY
2020; Street Gallery Project, The Bowery Collective in Soho, New York, NY
2020; Showcase, 627 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY
2020; Year of the Fancy Rat, 69 Eldridge St, New York, NY
2020; PIAPH Grand Opening, 198 Allen St, New York, NY
2020; State of ReUnion, The Bowery Union, New York NY
2020; National Exhibition of American Art: Altered States (used as promo image for the show); Pleiades Gallery, New York, NY
2019; SOLO; Showcase, 166 Bowery, New York, NY
2019; CONstitution, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; Les Femmes, Rue B, New York, NY
2019; Artist Showcase, Rue B, New York, NY
2019; March Studio Residency Showcase, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; Spring, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; Handle with Care, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; Poetry, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; February Studio Residency Showcase, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; Listen!, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; The Thread, Con Artist Collective, New York, NY
2019; BFA Integrated Design Thesis Show, Parsons School for Design, New York, NY
2016; Monumental Public Space & The Human, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2015; Parsons Pop-Up/Print Shop, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, New York, NY
2015; Student Art Exhibition, Hanes Gallery of Art, Winston-Salem, NC
2015; Student Art Exhibition, StArt Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
2014; PaperMade Exhibition, Federation University, Sydney, Australia

EDUCATION

2015 - 2018 BFA: Parsons School for Design; New York, NY; Major in Integrated Design, minors in Fine Art and Graphic Design; Summa cum laude, honors; BFA Merit Scholarship for Visual Art

2014 - 2015 Wake Forest University; Winston-Salem, NC; Karen Dingledine Presidential Scholarship for Visual Art

2013 NC Governor's School West Awardee in Visual Art; Winston-Salem, NC

2011 - 2015 Apprenticed with artist Lee Buamgarten at the Civic & Cultural Art Center of Pineville (CCAC); Charlotte, NC

AWARDS

2021; HUG Micro-Grant Awardee, Charlotte is Creative, Charlotte, NC, USA
2020; Shortlisted for Gallerie Heimat Art Prize, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France
2020; NG Art Creative Guest Residency, Eygalières, France
2015; Scholarship for Visual Art, Parsons School for Design, New York, NY, USA
2014; Karen Dingledine Scholarship for Visual Art, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
2013; NC Governor's School West Awardee/Attendee in Visual Art; Winston-Salem, NC, USA

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

I work as a digital designer for an NYC creative agency. I work in branding, ux/ui, illustration, print and digital products.

TAGS

figurative painter, any artist, colorful paintings, works on canvas, psychological paintings, illustrator