Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Charlie Hewitt. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, November 8th from 6-8pm, and the show will continue through December 23rd. This will be Hewitt’s fifth solo exhibition at the gallery and the first appearance of his new steel sculptures painted in bright, gleaming hues of enamel.

Hewitt’s new sculptures reference the color-saturated iconic imagery of his earlier paintings and prints, while also building upon his previously sculpted works that are characterized by untreated granite and copper. However, where Hewitt once called upon the natural elements for aesthetics, his new body of work has emerged as a cooler, slicker, more modern cousin. Hewitt’s roots in Maine remain apparent in the symbology of the new sculptures, but the employment of enamel transplants the work into an utterly new realm, that of our fast-paced global environment.

Not only do Hewitt’s most recent sculptures draw from the energy and vitality of the artist’s stunningly bold oil paintings and gorgeously graphic prints, but they further the presence and perceived reality of Hewitt’s iconic imagery. In this way, Hewitt’s work simultaneously stands as sculpture and as paintings in the round.

Other new works in the show include a sizeable woodcut and two large oil paintings.

As with most of Hewitt’s prints, a confident directness and presence of hand are wonderfully apparent. The oil paintings merge broad, thick, painterly brushstrokes and unconscious drips, and attempt to envelope the viewer physically and emotionally with dark hues and turbulent strokes. Seemingly, Hewitt’s work has shifted more toward gravitas, directly reflecting and reacting to the current turbulence of our nation and of our world.

In 2006, Charlie Hewitt was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine and had a retrospective of his prints at Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, Maine.

Charlie Hewitt's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum, NY; the New York Public Library, NY; the Brooklyn Museum; Chase Manhattan Bank, NY; Chemical Bank, NY; Library of Congress, D.C.; Hood Museum, Hanover, NH; Bowdoin College, ME; Bates College Museum of Art, ME; Portland Museum of Art, ME; and many others. For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery.