From the Rooftops (New York City Urban Fire Drawing on Paper) by Paul Chojnowski
A contemporary urban skyline at night time
Made with burned and scorched paper
11 x 18 inches, 18 x 25 x 1.5 inches framed in black walnut stained wood frame
Perhaps the single most fascinating thing about this painting is the artist's choice of medium: water and fire. There is no sepia tone, no pigment, no watercolor. The artist paints iconic views of New York City and other famous American cities with a wet brush on paper that he then burns with a blow torch to add contrast and hue. Bright headlights on yellow taxis illuminate the streets with such vibrancy that the work almost appears to be backlit.
Throughout Chojnowski's career a distinguishing characteristic has been the use of nontraditional media and tools in his art making. His current work, images burned into paper and wood evolved as a result of his conscious effort to embrace art historical traditions while rejecting the traditional processes. Chojnowski began burning and scorching wood and paper to create his images in the early 1990’s.
Since then, his fire drawings have been shown in group and solo exhibitions in art centers, museums and galleries nationally. His work was part of the set decoration on the Scott Hicks film No Reservations, starring Catherine Zeta-Jone and Aaron Eckhart and the Nancy Meyers film It's Complicated starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. A documentary titled AGLOW about his life has been shown at film festivals around North America recently.
In 2013 Chojnowski's work was part of exhibitions titled illuminators at OK Harris Works of Art and SUB urban at Smart Clothes Gallery both located in New York. He was selected to be the first Artist in Residence at WATERFIRE Sharon, in western Pennsylvania where an exhibition of his fire drawings took place in October 2013. In 2014 his work was selected for the inaugural exhibition Figuring In at the Berkshire Artist Museum in North Adams, Massachusetts, home of MASS MoCA. In the autumn a fire drawing acquired by the University of Arizona Art Museum will be part of the exhibition A Continuing Legacy: Gallagher Purchases.
During the summer and fall of 2015 his work was in the first exhibition at the Fresh Paint Gallery, part of the Berkshire Artist Museum in North Adams, Massachusetts and in WAVELENGTH: THE ART OF LIGHT at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tuscon. It was followed by a solo exhibition titled New and Selected Work at the C. William Gilchrist Museum of the Arts in Cumberland, Maryland that opened in October.
In 2016 the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY mounted a solo show titled Paper, Plywood and Light. During the summer Bright Ideas Brewing in North Adams, MA hosted an exhibition his Infrastructure Series. Both exhibitions featured new drawings on plywood and illuminated drawings on paper.
Artist statement:
Walking after dark in the light filled streets of American cities like Boston, New York and Chicago has been my inspiration for an ongoing series of work I call Nocturnes. As a pedestrian one is aware of being surrounded by the rich array of sights and sounds. I have no interest in a studied representation of a street scene per say. My intent with this series has always been to capture a memory, a fleeting moment of what I saw from the corner of my eye as I made my way amidst the bustling city dwellers. Visually, my subject is light: taxi headlights reflecting off wet pavement, neon blaring and shop or apartment windows aglow. I love the energy of the city after dark and I hope to some extent to have captured it in works like On the Street and Out of the Darkness.
Artist CV:
2016 Paper, Plywood & Light, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2015 New & Selected Work, Gilchrist Museum of the Arts, Cumberland, MD
2013 Fire Drawings, James E. Winner Jr. Arts Culture Center, Sharon, PA
2012 NIGHT I LIGHT, James Gallery, Pittsburgh
2011 Searchlights & other works Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2008 Town and Country, Hubert Gallery, New York
Selected Work, Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta
2007 Natural and Unnatural Disasters, Kidder Smith Gallery, Boston
2005 More Pictures About Buildings and Food, Naoussa Gallery, Tyringham, MA
2004 New Work, Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art Ltd, New York
New Work, PLUM Gallery, Williamstown, MA
Nudes and Nocturnes, Smart Duval Gallery, Aspen
2003 Threadlines, Naoussa Gallery, Tyringham, MA collaborations Scott Sandell
2002 Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport Atrium Gallery
2001 Revealed by Fire, Bridgewater/Lustberg & Blumenfeld Gallery, New York
and Macon & Co. Fine Art, Atlanta
2000 Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago
Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY
Macon & Co. Fine Art, Atlanta
1999 Bridgewater/Lustberg & Blumenfeld Gallery, New York
1997 Macon & Co. Fine Art, Atlanta
1996 Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LaGrange, GA
1995 AGIARY, Macon & Co. Fine Art, Atlanta, collaboration with Kevin Haller
Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA, collaboration with Kevin Haller
1993 New Work, Macon & Co. Fine Art, Atlanta
Berkshire Artisans Gallery, Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, Pittsfield, MA
1991 Butters Gallery, Portland, OR
1989 Butters Gallery, Portland, OR
Group Exhibitions
2018 Landscapes: Capturing the View, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2016 IS 183 Faculty Show, Williamstown, MA
2015 WAVELENGTH: THE ART OF LIGHT, University of Arizona Art Museum, Tucson,
AZ
Fresh Paint, Berkshire Artist Museum, North Adams, MA Fence Select, Arts Center of the Capital District, Troy, NY
2015 CITYSCAPES, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2014 Figuring In, Rudd Art Museum, North Adams MA 2013 SUBurban, SMART CLOTHES Gallery, New York
illuminators, OK Harris Works of Art, New York
The Abstracted City, Hubert Gallery, New York
2012 WORKS ON PAPER, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2011 BLACK & WHITE, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco 2010 Pulp Friction, James Gallery, Pittsburgh
Painted City, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2009 Great Pretenders: An Exhibit of Art Fakery, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson
2008 Turn and Burn, The Gilchrist Gallery, Cumberland, MD
2006 New Visions, The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA
2005 NEW AMERICAN TALENT the twentieth exhibition, curated by Dan
Cameron, Arthouse, Austin, TX
Berkshire Biennale, The Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, MA
The City, Contemporary View of the Built Environment, Lehman College, Savoir Affair, Nemacolin Woodlands, Farmington, PA
Mapped, from here to there, Margaret Thatcher Projects, NY 2004 Night New York, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NY
UNnatural, Full Spectrum Gallery, Lakewood, NJ 2003 flicker, Jeffrey Coploff Fine Art, New York
FLORA, Plum Gallery, Williamstown, MA
Painted City, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2002 Hot Art: Burning Images, Paul Chojnowski, John Cage and Andrew Bennett
University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson
ON THE MOVE: Transportation Imagery in Art, Swan Coach Gallery, Atlanta
FIREWORKS, 55 Mercer Gallery, New York
Fire, KGA Compound, Houston
2001 BURN: Artists Play with Fire, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach 1999 Westside Inaugural Exhibition, Macon & Company Fine Art, Atlanta 1998 Ink Jet, Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, MA
Earthly Visions, Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, IL
1998 National Juried Exhibition, No BIAS Gallery, Bennington, VT
1997 National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts/Southern Arts Federation Fellowship Exhibition, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
1997 New Artists, a baker’s dozen, Spazi Contemporary Art, Housatonic, MA
Naked Landscape, Spazi Contemporary Art, Housatonic, MA
New Prints, Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, IL
Berkshire Photography, Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, MA
Figure 8, Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta
1996 17 Days of
Olympic Art...