ABOUT
CHARLIE HEWITT AMERICAN ICON by David McDonald
CHARLIE HEWITT: ARTIST STATEMENT
Charlie Hewitt’s practice is one of constant experimentation that began in the New York of the 1960s, initially influenced by the New York School. Though largely based on painting and drawing in those heady years, today Hewitt works in multiple media, including print making, drawing, painting, neon and LED-illuminated sculpture, metal, ceramic and digital art. What threads through all of these is an inescapable grounding in the freedom of drawing and the techniques of print making.
Whether this methodology results in imagery that is figurative or abstract, everything begins with drawing. His compulsive “doodling” feeds a visual iconography extrapolated from his richly varied life. Stylized tool shapes harken to carpentry work that funded his art career. Cards and dice refer to the gambles and risks of life, daring to win but willing to fail, all in the service of a creative life. Marquee signs allude to a magical, optimistic time of road travel in America, which were formative during road trips of his youth. But even the abstract shapes he employs in nonrepresentational compositions originate with pen or colored pencil on paper. Hewitt believes that the lexicon that arose from these doodles eventually helped release him from the shadow of New York School style.
Hewitt works in two studios, approaching each with completely different orientations. One is his lightworks studio, a converted greenhouse where he allows himself the freedom to play, producing illuminated sculpture and digital art. The words and imagery that comprise this subject matter are like autonomic writing, not ponderously conceived but filled with personal meaning, even in their perceived humor and lightheartedness.
The other studio is where Hewitt paints in a state of what he describes as a daily meditation or devotion toward Western European art traditions. Here, he achieves a balance with his lighter side through the humility inculcated by his classical training, where his materials and techniques demand discipline and rigor. These works often find inspiration in print making techniques, incorporating abstract shapes cut from handmade papers that are coated with paint and pressed onto canvas, frequently also collaging with other shapes onto the surface. This is arguably his most liberated work, free of content and narrative, but filled with and openness and expression he has finally learned not to question. Combined, these seemingly divergent impulses comprise a holistic life and oeuvre that is at once high and low, banal and precious, comic and sober, quotidian and spiritually transcendent.
An exhibition at Cove Street Arts combining many of Charlie’s paintings, sculptures, and prints in 2019
Charlie Hewitt: Left of the Turnpike was an exhibition of Hewitt's dynamic, imaginative paintings, sculpture, prints, and neon constructions.
Learn more about this exhibition here
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The Whitney Museum of Art, New York City
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
MIT, List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca, New York
The New York Public Library, New York City
The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
The Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Phillips Academy, Addison Gallery, Andover, Massachusetts
The Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York City
Chemical Bank, New York City
Maryland Bank and Trust, Lexington Park, Maryland
Prudential Insurance, New York City
State University of New York, Binghamton, New York
Dillard Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Charlie Hewitt: Bright Screens and Electric Dreams- Moss Galleries Portland, ME
2022 Charlie Hewitt: Light Up - Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan, CT
2022 Charlie Hewitt: New Work - Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
2022 Charlie Hewitt: Bush of Ghosts - Moss Galleries - Falmouth, Maine
2019 Charlie Hewitt: Left of the Turnpike Cove Street Arts - Portland, Maine
2017 Heather Gaudio Fine Art – New Canaan, Connecticut
2016 Jim Kempner Fine Art – New York City
2014 Charlie Hewitt: White Light – Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
2012 Woodcuts, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, Connecticut
Greenwich Art Council Greenwich, Connecticut
Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
2010 Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
Icon Gallery, Brunswick, Maine
2008 Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
2007 Whitney Art Works, Portland Maine
2006 Farnsworth Museum, Rockland Maine
Olin Arts Center, Bates College, Lewiston Maine
2004 Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
2001 Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
1998 Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
Arden Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1997 June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine
Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York City
1996 Ralph Greene Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1995 Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City
Arden Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1994 Kouros Gallery, New York City
Paula Paulette Fine Arts, Portland, Maine
1993 Ralph Greene Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1992 Olin Arts Center, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Dranoff Fine Arts, New York City
Dean Valentgas Gallery, Portland, Maine
1991 Vinalhaven Press Gallery, New York City
1990 M-13 Gallery, New York City
Forum Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dean Velentgas Gallery, Portland, Maine
Frick Gallery, Belfast, Maine
1988 M-13 Gallery, New York City
1986 Gryphon Gallery, Detroit, Michigan
M-13 Gallery, New York City
1985 M-13 Gallery, New York City
1983 Jay Gallery, New York City
1982 SUNY Gallery, Binghamton, New York
1980 Wolfe Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1977 Eric Schindler Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
1975 Levitan Gallery, New York City
SUNY Gallery, Binghamton, New York
1974 St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, Maryland
Brata Gallery, New York City