This exhibition brings together two series of intimate abstract works by Philadelphia artist Douglas Witmer.  Beginning with found materials, both bodies of work go in unique directions that differ suprisingly from the artist's usual reductive geometric paintings.  Produced over a span of more than ten years, Witmer did not release the works from the studio until 2010.  This exhibition marks the Florida debut for both series. 

Fruitville is the name for a body of work that has been ogoing since 2000; however, individual objects are undated...produced in intermittent spurts, often with years between periods of activity.  The Fruitville Pike is a road where Douglas Witmer grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  It's a major thoroughfare, but doesn't go to, from, or through anywhere called Fruitville.  Fruitville exists in Witmer's imagination as a kind of Eden:  a place of purity, clarity, and quiet delight.  It manifests itself in an ongoing visual process of experimentation with wood, paint, glue, paper, ink, light, and shadows.  The things that make up Witmer's Fruitville exist to be in relationship to the places where they can be seen-- and also in relationship with each other.

Inspired by Indian Tantric drawings for the first time in 2004, Witmer connected immediately and profoundly with their visual energy and uncanny balance that felt precisely calibrated, yet simultaneously blunt and raw.  Given a cache of vintage school-grade writing paper found by his father in 2006, Witmer found the color of the old paper reminded him of the color of the Tantric drawings and one day began layering upon this paper the simplest rectangular forms in black and white.  The paper had a way of receiving and transforming every kind of touch and material the artist put to it, with the sheet size and repetitive ruled lines serving as grounding constants.  School Papers represents Witmer's exploration of a personal tactility and geometry in a contemplative mindset, just as within the Tantric tradition those Indian drawings serve specific meditative purposes for both their creators and their viewers. 

Douglas Witmer's work has been exhibited internationally, including at such prestigious venues as MoMA PS1; The Painting Center, New York; The Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Sydney Non-Objective in Sydney, Australia.  He holds a BA from Goshen College and an MFA from The Pennysylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.