Ron Witkosky's 18 fanciful paper sculptures on display at Boxheart Expressions in Bloomfield are a surprise. Rich with psychedelic colors, the wall-mounted works are assembled from repeated designs that the artist has either hand-drawn or photocopied, then built up in layers into organic-looking forms that appear as though they are about to pop off the walls of the gallery. So it's no wonder why Witkosky has titled this solo show "Organic Pop."
Witkosky, 32, started making collages such as this in the mid-1990s, when he heard from a friend living in Southern California that owners of a Volkswagen car dealership there were looking for unusual art for their walls.
The Pittsburgh-based artist responded by making numerous drawings of the much beloved VW Beetle on thick paper, hand-coloring them in vibrant colors with markers and cutting them out and gluing them into a three-dimensional collage. The owner of the car dealership liked it and bought it.
Not long after that success, Witkosky says, he visited an exhibition of works by artist Red Grooms at Wood Street Galleries, Downtown, in 1995. Grooms is a painter, sculptor and printmaker based in New York City who is known for his cartoonish, pop art style that celebrates urban life through unique sculptural tableaux that combine two- and three-dimensional elements.
"Right when I got into this, and maybe had done a piece or two, I saw his show, and it definitely inspired me and made me realize that there were a lot of avenues that I could go down with this look," Witkosky says.
Even though Grooms' work might have influenced him, Witkosky's own pieces look nothing at all like that of the well-known artist. Instead of elements of cartoon or caricature, Witkosky's works utilize his own doodles as starting points.
Built up in many layers, the pieces are highly textural and multi-dimensional. So much so that, at times, the effect can fool with ones' own depth perception.
For example, in the piece "Ca Boom," multiple layers of gold shooting stars in various sizes are built up within a thick shadowbox frame. Through repetition of the same doodle, the eye recognizes a pattern. But because of the varied sizes and their arrangement in various layers, there is no discernible direction in which the eye can be led. Therefore, without gestalt, the effect is dizzying, making it seem as though one could be sucked in at any moment and left swimming among a sea of stars.
Likewise in the piece "Circuit Board," the same trick is played out, but with the use of a more geometric design. However, through this reliance on geometry, the piece becomes reminiscent of fractals, making it seem just as organic and natural as the other pieces, despite the work's title.
In both pieces there is an otherworldly effect, confirming what Witkosky means when he says, "I just like to create another world that you want to crawl into to escape this one. There is no deep purpose to it. It's simply visual stimulation."
Other works, particularly those in his "Pinwheel" series, look as though they've grown on the walls. The Pinwheel pieces are based on Witkosky's doodles of pinwheels. After photocopying each design multiple times and hand-coloring them, he says he assembled them, each to their own piece, in such a free-flowing way that "there's an organic sense to them in that they almost look as though they might have grown there," Witkosky says.
Although not a "pinwheel" piece, an untitled work hung above the fireplace mantle in the gallery is a good example of this. As if an abstract phoenix rising from ashes, it takes a simple feather design and utilizes it to extreme effect through vibrant color, pattern and repetition. Ultimately, it makes something very fluid out of something very static.
Although Witkosky's pieces begin with doodles, they become something else entirely, something far more engaging.
"I'm not crazy about drawing things that really exist," says the artist, who sees himself more as a designer. "I like design," Witkosky says. "That's what I've always had a feel for. That's what I enjoy the most, is just creating a whole other world."
Additional Information:
Details
'Organic Pop: Work by Ron Witkosky'When: Through Sept. 6. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Boxheart Expressions, 4523 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield.
Details: (412) 687-8858 or www.boxheart.org
