Details:

This painting is part of a series of pastels by the artist that explores landscapes and natural light. These works were made in Greece, continuing a centuries-old tradition of plein air compositions—paintings made outdoors.
Unframed
Signed with “XO Nicole”

① Artwork:

The Phoenix 2

This painting is part of a series of pastels by the artist that explores landscapes and natural light. These works were made in Greece, continuing a centuries-old tradition of plein air compositions—paintings made outdoors. These artworks demonstrate how the artist uses dry pastels to capture different landscapes' particular luminosity. The chalky pigments contain a unique chromatic intensity that is difficult to capture in other media; the colors seem to emanate their hues from some internal energy source.

Wittenberg is committed to making “lifelike” paintings and drawings that evoke an immersive feeling of a singular moment. The artist says her pastel works are "about sensation—the feeling of people, places and things. I wanted to record them really quickly and in high chroma.”

Specs:

11.5 inches
15.5 inches

③ Artist:

Nicole Wittenberg

Nicole Wittenberg creates life-like paintings and drawings that evoke an immersive, singular moment. Whether employing dry pastel or oil paint, the artist achieves an intense luminosity in her compositions; her canvases glow as though they are charged with the scene’s light, and her drawings’ colors seem to emanate their hues from some internal energy source. Whether rendering landscapes or aroused male figures from amateur porn, Wittenberg’s practice has always aligned with a sensual take on life.

BIO:

Nicole Wittenberg—a curator, professor, writer and painter—was born in San Francisco, California in 1979. The artist received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003.

Exhibitions of Wittenberg’s work include: Sunday Kind of Love at Nina Johnson in Miami, Florida; The Female Gaze, Part Two: Women Look at Men at Cheim & Read Gallery in New York City; Painter’s Painters: Gifts from Alex Katz at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; and In Her Hands at the Skarstedt Gallery in New York City.

Wittenberg’s works are included in many prominent collections, including: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City; the Albertina in Vienna, Austria; the Boston Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Massachusetts; and others.

Wittenberg received the American Academy of Arts and Letters coveted John Koch Award for Best Young Figurative Painter in 2012. From 2011–2014, the artist served as a teacher at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, and the Bruce High Quality Foundation University. In 2017, Wittenberg was a professor in the Critical Theory Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. 

Wittenberg lives and works in New York City.

Nicole Wittenberg:
The Phoenix 2, 2021
Pastel on paper
15.5 × 11.5 inches /