Third Place Award of Excellence
The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild
2023 Fall Membership Exhibition
November 14 – November 27, 2023
Live at Gallery 21, Spanish Village, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
Online during the month of November 2023:
www.sdmaag.org/2023-Fall-Exhibition
Juror: Katie Dolgov, Director of Exhibitions and Collections
Oceanside Museum of Art
Congratulations to our
Third Place Award of Excellence Winner
Ed Whitmore
Ed was awarded the third place for his mixed media work
Primordial Soup.
About Ed:
I work with the controlled oxidation of iron, copper, and bronze metal effects paints which creates a patina, a thin layer of oxidation that forms on the surface through age and exposure. Under natural weathering, a patina layer takes many years to develop, but it can also be produced by spraying the paint with a chemical reagent, which is what I do. The process yields natural yet dramatic effects that convey the passage of time.
Both of my parents were born in Poland and survived the complete destruction of their families and their way of life. I was born in the Bronx and spent my formative years living in Paterson, New Jersey, an industrial city that was home to past triumphs but has become a place of gloom and hopelessness.
To give my pieces an authentic feeling of the past, I often incorporate vintage materials. I sometimes hand chisel wood planks prior to painting which gives the work a 3D effect and has distant echoes of the bas relief panels chiseled in stone from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. When I was a young man, I developed an interest in ancient civilizations, cave art, ancient cairns and Earth Mother Goddess sites which all served to reinforce my yearning for a lost past. For the close observer, somber themes of decay and loss can be found in my work. When I was in my early 20s, I had the opportunity to view the Mark Rothko retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. I was enthralled, found myself lost in spiritual reverie and experienced a sense of the sublime too great to be expressed in words. I seek to capture some of that sense of awe that Rothko’s work evokes and create paintings that transcend the familiar and the merely decorative. I strive to infuse my work with anima, the vital principle or animating force within all living things. In traditional Japanese art, wabi-sabi is an aesthetic view centered on the acceptance of imperfection. It is a composite of Wabi (subdued, austere beauty) and sabi (rustic patina ). My paintings and sculptures evoke a sense of serene melancholy and spiritual longing, the very essence of wabi-sabi.
Description:
Oxidized copper and bronze poured on wood coated with oxidized iron, augmented with blocks of polished olive wood and agates. evokes our evolutionary history.
Selected Exhibitions:
2018
“Gravitational Effects” - Hon. Mention - Art on 30 th - San Diego, CA
Solo Exhibition - Ashton Gallery - San Diego, CA
2019
Solo Exhibition - Lofts on Laurel - San Diego, CA
2020
Solo Exhibition – State/Oak – Carlsbad, CA
“Hall of Bulls” - Featured Artist - The Magazine of Contemporary Art
2021
“Jerusalem at Sunset” - San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild
Solo Exhibition - Gallerie Valerie - Crockett, CA
“Under the Sea” - Hon. Mention - Marine Show - Stamford, CT
“Jubilant” - Hon. Mention - Boyer Foundation - New York, NY
“In the Bewitching Hour” - SoCal’s Best: Upstarts & Innovators -
Escondido, CA
“Evanescent Ice Floes” – Hon. Mention - Grey Cube Online Exhibition
“Jubilant” - National Society of Artists
“After the Storm” - Hon. Mention - Art in the Loft – Alpena, MI
“Ephemera” - 1st Place - Peninsula Art League - Gig Harbor, WA
“Convergence” - “Tree of Life” - Merit Award - Gallery Ring
“Ephemera” - Hon. Mention - Gallery Ring
“Tree of Life” - Bronze Award - Camelback Gallery
“Rustic Tree” - 2nd Place - Colorful Abstraction - Fusion.com
“In Flux” – Hon. Mention - Grey Cube Gallery
2022
“Storm Approaching” – Hon. Mention – Colourful Gallery Ring
“Ephemera” – Hon> Mention - Northern Waters Resort, Watersmeet, MI
Featured Artist - Circle Arts Foundation
Solo Exhibition - Passaic County Arts Center - Hawthorne, NJ
“Beach Detritus” - Diamond Award Colours - Gallery Ring online
“Radiant Tree” - Hon. Mention - Boyer Foundation - New York, NY
“Deadvlei” - Merit Award - Nature Gallery Ring
“Statuesque” - Talent Prize - Art Show International
“Deadvlei” - People’s award - Northern California Arts - Carmichael, CA
“Storm Approaching” - Best American Talent - The Holy Art – London, England
“Deadvlei” - 5th place - American Art Awards
“Radiant Tree” - Grand Prize - Exhibizone
Solo Show - Summer – Exhibizone
2023
“Yoga on the Beach” - Magnum Opus - Sacramento Center for the Arts
“Earth Mother Goddess shrine Woman” - HMVC Gallery - New York, NY
“Burden of Time” - Art from Detritus - Virdian Artists - New York, NY
“Under the Sea” - 1st Place - Anything but a Canvas - Ground Floor Artists -
Surprise, AZ
“Beach at Sunset” – Hon. Mention - A Walk Through Nature - Mission Trails Visitors
Center, San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild
“Apocalyptic Vision” – Hon. Mention - MACC - Rancho Cordova, CA
“Deadvlei” - 3rd Place - Empire of Art Boyer Foundation - New York, NY
“Tree of Life” - Grand Prize - Exhibizone
“Protoplasm” “Eerie Calm” – Hon. Mention – Blue Grey Cube Gallery