Los Angeles (September
13, 2016) — On October, 1st, Corey Helford Gallery will proudly present incomparable New York-based artist Martin
Wittfooth, whose powerful works take on the majesty of a world in conflict
with its most beautiful inhabitants in his newest series of oil paintings
titled "The Archaic Revival."
Wittfooth’s latest series employs a variety of
painting techniques, ranging from delicate and detailed brush treatments to
heavily textured palette knife applications, and deliberate attention is given
to the scale of the works to impart gravity and presence to the images. “The Archaic Revival” marks the first
series in which Wittfooth has explored bronze sculpture as a medium; plus, two large-scale sculptures
will make their debut.
Of his new work, Wittfooth says: “‘The Archaic Revival’ is a title borrowed from late philosopher, author and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, who explored the notion that Western culture and society has become sick, and is undergoing a healing process by a reversion to archaic values and behaviors. In my latest series of paintings and sculptures I aim to pay tribute to this idea, that in our species’ long collective march out of the proverbial garden toward greater technological complexity and the effects this process has and will have on the world around us, it is in the past that we may truly see ourselves reflected back at us as we really are: nature itself. McKenna argued that this return toward the archaic began in earnest in the troubled 20th Century via an interest in the subconscious in the works of Freud and Jung, primitivism, surrealism and abstraction in art and music, and culminated in the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, a revolution that was suppressed to a large degree until the dawn of the 21st Century. The new series seeks to contribute to this revitalized conversation: our era is riddled with turmoil and uncertainty stemming from our dominion rather than stewardship of the world that we inhabit. Perhaps our salvation lies in the recognition that beneath the veneer of our culture we are the very same nature that we have pushed to the margins.”
About Martin Wittfooth:
Martin Wittfooth was born in Toronto, Canada in 1981 and currently lives
and works in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley in New York. He earned his MFA from
the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2008. Wittfooth’s work has been
exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, with solo exhibitions in New York
City, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Montreal. His paintings have also appeared in
numerous publications, including Juxtapoz, American Art Collector, and Vice, and cover features in New American Paintings, Hi-Fructose and American Artist Magazine.
Currently, Wittfooth’s original painting “Incantation” is on view in Hi-Fructose's "Turn the Page: The
First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose" exhibition at Virginia Museum of
Contemporary Art through December 2016.