Swiss artist Uwe Wittwer’s exhibition at Void Gallery, Outsiders Delight, is work spanning from 2007- 2009.
Swiss artist Uwe Wittwer creates work using the mediums of watercolour, oil paint and Inkjet prints. Wittwer’s source materials are found images taken from the Internet which he then modifies by blurring, editing, erasing and omitting elements.
There are constant recurrent themes within Wittwer’s work, references to Old Masters paintings, family portraits, still life objects, domestic interiors and war scenes. The question of authenticity of images is at the centre of his work and how authenticity is altered through the mass duplication of images, in particular those produced through the internet.
Wittwer’s work calls on personal memory, history, politics and class structure; subjects that are close to him. On viewing the work our expectation is that the people and places we are seeing are connected emotionally to the artist, a family portrait, a holiday snapshot. Not so, in order to concentrate on the real emotion the artist has detached himself and appropriated anonymous images of unfamiliar people and places.
The resulting works are mysteriously beautiful and haunting, images that render unsettling responses and suggest new narratives.
Uwe Wittwer Biography
Born 1954 in Zurich, where he went to school, Uwe originally trained as a social worker (Bern, 1974–1977). In 1979 he rented his first studio. His early works were colourful abstract expressive oil paintings. The change towards figurative painting took place during the mid 1980s. His first solo exhibition was at Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich, in 1983. In 1989 he spent time in London on a studio grant (Binz 39 Foundation, Zurich). In 1994 ,studied in Paris for a year, financed by a grant by the Canton Zurich. In the same year, he received the Swiss federal scholarship for the arts. His 1998 solo exhibition at Helmhaus Zurich was the first time his digitally edited photographs were shown. Since then, digitally manipulated images have been a part of his work. He works with images downloaded from the Internet.
For more about Uwe’s work please visit his website.
Acknowledgements
The work was brought to Derry in collaboration with The Haunch of Venison gallery who represent Wittwer in London.
Special thanks to Ben Tufnell Head of Exhibitions at Haunch of Venison.
