GRETCHEN TREITZ BIO
Kentucky State Champion American Yellowwood, Cave Hill.
Watercolor and silver leaf on paper, 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches
“Trees for me are a symbol of strength, a metaphor of hope.” – Gretchen Treitz
GRETCHEN TREITZ
EDUCATION
1980 Master of Fine Arts, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
1974 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022 Aqueous, National Juried Watercolor Exhibit, Headley-Whitney Museum of Art, Lexington, KY
2021 Aqueous, National Juried Exhibit, Lexington, KY
AquaVenture, KY Watercolor Society, Louisville, KY
2020 AquaVenture, LexArts Gallery, Lexington, KY
2019 Light in the Darkness, Kent Mansion Gallery, New Albany, IN
Holiday Art Exhibit, ArtSeed Gallery, New Albany, IN
AquaVenture, James Bourne Gallery, New Albany, IN
2018 Group Exhibition, galerie hertz, Louisville, KY
Celebrate the Season, KY Watercolor Society, Louisville, KY
PaperWorks, Renzy Gallery, Lexington, KY
AquaVenture, Kaviar Forge Gallery, Louisville, KY
2017 Holiday Exhibition, galerie hertz, Louisville, KY
Painting I, galerie hertz, Louisville, KY
2016 Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, Community Arts Center, Danville, KY
Aqueous, Kentucky Watercolor Society, Actor's Theater, Louisville, KY
Art Squared, Louisville Vusual Art, Louisville, KY
2015 Artists in Our Midst, Kaviar Forge Gallery, Louisville, KY
Art Under Construction, LVA, Louisville, KY
OSW Exhibition, Cressman Center, Louisville, KY
Art Squared, Public Gallery, Louisville, KY
Metro Curates, New York, NY
2014 OSW Exhibition, Cressman Center, Louisville, KY
Art Squared, Public Gallery, Louisville, KY
2012 Invitational, Gallery on the Green, Canton, CT
Faculty Exhibition, Westfield State University, MA
1995-2008 Local Artists, Granville Cultural Council, MA
2006 Giddy Up to Granby Exhibition and Auction, CT
2004 Cow Parade, Exhibition and Auction, Hartford, CT
2003 Group Exhibition, The Master’s School, CT
1998 Annual Holcomb Farm Exhibition, Granby, CT
Miniature Show, Gallery on the Green, Canton, CT
1989, 91 Gretchen Treitz, Watercolors, Swearingen Gallery, Louisville, KY
1991 Kentucky Art, JB Speed Museum and Hilliard Lyons Progressive Arts, KY
1988 Chautauqua School of Art Faculty, Rockefeller Gallery, St. U of NY, Fredonia
1987 Faculty Exhibition, Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, PA
1986 Gretchen Treitz, Watercolors, St. Peter’s, Citicorp Building, New York, NY
1985-86 Artists From Studio in a School, Artists’ Space Gallery, New York, NY
1985 Structural Cheese, Ammo Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Invitational, Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
1984 Studio in a School Artists, Goddard-Riverside Gallery, New York, NY
Contemporary Tendencies, St. Andrew’s College, NC
Faculty Exhibition, Cooper-Union, New York, NY
1983-84 CAPS Fellows Traveling Exhibition, New York State, and New York City
1983 Brooklyn Bridge/Brooklyn Artists, Brooklyn Museum, NY
1980 Abstract Artists, Invitational, New York Studio School, NY
1979 Gretchen Treitz, HERA Gallery, Wakefield, RI
COLLECTIONS
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
National Westminster Bank, New York, New York
Hilliard-Lyons Collection, Louisville, KY
Holcomb Farm Permanent Collection, Granby, CT
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Gilda’s Club, Louisville, KY
Private Collections
GUEST LECTURER, WORKSHOPS, AND MUSEUM ENGAGEMENTS
2014-16 Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Docent, Louisville, KY
2016-present The Speed Art Museum, Docent, Louisville, KY
2005 Board of Education, Lecture, Granby, CT
1996, 1997 Granville Cultural Council, Workshop, MA
1996-98 Granville Public School, Exploring Arts Program, Workshop, MA
1995 The Hartford Art School, Lecture, University of Hartford, CT
1994 Holcomb Farm Art Program, Workshop, Granby, CT
1993 Hill-Stead Museum, Workshop, Farmington, CT
1991 Brooklyn College, Lecture, City University of New York, NY
1985-86 Board of Education, Arts Partners, Workshop, New York, NY
1985 The Metropolitan Museum, Lecture, New York, NY
The Whitney Museum of Art, Lecture, New York, NY
The Guggenheim Museum of Art, Lecture, New York, NY
The Museum of Modern Art, Lecture, New York, NY
The New Museum, Lecture, New York, NY
TEACHING
2007-2012 Professor, Westfield State University, Westfield, MA
1999-2000 Professor, Hartford Art School, U. of Hartford, CT
1987-88 Professor, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
1988 Instructor, Chautauqua School of Art, NY
1984 Instructor, Cooper-Union School of Art, New York, NY
1981-87 Artist in Residence, Studio in a School, P.S. 164, New York, NY
AWARDS AND HONORS
2021 Honorable Mention, AquaVenture, Louisville, KY
2018 Preston Art Center Award, AquaVenture, Louisville, KY
Honorable Mention, KY Watercolor Society, Louisville, KY
2016 Creative Catalyst Award, Aqueous, KY Watercolor Society National Juried Exhibition
2012 Honorable Mention, Gallery on the Green, Canton, CT
1998 Purchase Prize, Holcomb Farm Exhibition, Granby, CT
1996, 97 Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, Children’s Art Workshops
1985-88 Project Grant, J. Paul Getty/NEA Film Series for PBS “Behind the Scenes”, NY
1986 Artist’s Grant, Artist Space Gallery, New York, NY
1984-85 NEA Grant, Artists in Education, in collaboration w/ Studio in a School Program, NY
1983 CAPS Grant, Watercolor, New York State Council on the Arts, NY
1981 Artist in Residence, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY
1979 Charles B. Shaw Painting Scholarship, Brooklyn College, CUNY
COMMISSIONS
2015 Mural, Thuy Stephens Salon, Prospect, KY
1985, 86 Mural, National Dance Institute, in collaboration with Frank Stella , Red Grooms and the Studio in a School, New York, NY
1984 Mural, New York Public School 164, in collaboration with David Wienstein and the Studio in a School, Brooklyn, NY
1980 Mural, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Sponsored by the Environmental Arts Group, Brooklyn, NY
ARTIST STATEMENT
For a long time, I have been making and painting on paper. I love its texture and absorbency. There is a certain sparkle that happens when watercolor collects over the fibrous surface. Recently, I have been working on a series of trees and flowers using silver leaf and watercolor on cold press paper.
The majority of my early work has been predominately abstract watercolor, only occasionally painting landscapes. Since moving back to Kentucky from New England, my main focus has evolved into more realistic images.
Trees and flowers are for me symbols of strength. I use them to explore the spiritual realms of the wilderness, the cosmos, and the mysteries of the soul. Trees represent perseverance, determination, steadfastness. I have an affinity with the artists Ryder, Blakelock, Augustus Vincent Tack, and early Chinese painters, all who used nature to search for the divine. Likewise, the celestial luminosity found in early manuscripts has affected my work.
Silver leaf, white gold leaf and aluminum leaf emulate a kind of ethereal light. I use these materials to represent the delicate vulnerability of sky, wind, atmosphere, and other environmental forces. Other times I use these metal leaves to embody the wonder of the life force of a tree’s progression against these forces. I am amazed how trees seem to personify a perfect being in adversity. They are a metaphor for hope.
My recent experiences have sent me on a deep spiritual quest. Painting trees and flowers with silver leaf is a catharsis, turning anguish into a purpose. When I am weak, a life force inside makes me stronger. My versions of trees and nature are really about the faith within me. The trees and flowers I paint call forth the universal tension of opposites between matter and spirit. Sometimes I feel I am being refined like silver, heated to remove impurities!
The Kentucky National and State Champion Trees are some of the subjects of my current work. My versions of these trees hopefully embody the wonder, spirit, and mystery of these majestic trees. It is my wish my tree pieces bring awareness to Kentucky's air quality, biodiversity, local climate, energy, and natural heritage. My flower paintings are also symbolic of the fragile nature of life. - Gretchen Treitz
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Vignette: Gretchen Treitz
“Trees for me are a symbol of strength, a metaphor of hope.” – Gretchen Treitz
"Sycamore" by Gretchen Treitz, 8x8in, watercolor, silverleaf (2016)
Trees are important in the work of Gretchen Treitz, the form providing compositional structure while also expressing a highly spiritual theme. Everyone has heard of druids, but Treitz is following a longer, more complicated tradition of using the tree as a religious symbol; their endless cycle of renewal allows an easy metaphor for life, and the evergreen has often represented the eternal or divine for precisely its lack of a cycle of change. No death or renewal, but constant and unending life.
“I am amazed how trees seem to personify a perfect being in adversity. My current series of trees is an attempt to explore a reality beyond appearances. Like many artists from the past, I use nature, light, and celestial luminosity to search for the divine. Painting trees with silver leaf not only highlights their shape but also calls forth the universal tension between matter and spirit. I engage trees to approach the spiritual realms of the wilderness, the cosmos, and the mysteries of the soul. Trees for me are a symbol of strength, a metaphor of hope. Silver leaf, white gold leaf, and aluminum leaf emulate a kind of ethereal light. I utilize these materials to represent the delicate vulnerability of sky, wind, atmosphere, and other environmental factors. Other times I manipulate these metal leaves and watercolor to embody the wonder of the life energy of a tree’s progression against these forces.”
"Light on Broken Places II" by Gretchen Treitz, 15x15in, watercolor, silverleaf (2017)
Treitz was just a part of Painting Exhibition #1 at Galerie Hertz in Louisville, and in 2016 participated in Aqueous, Kentucky Watercolor Society, Actor’s Theater, Louisville, and in Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, Community Arts Center, Danville, KY.
Permanent Collections:
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn New York
National Westminster Bank, New York, New York
Hilliard-Lyons Collection, Louisville, KY
Holcomb Farm Permanent Collection, Granby, CT
Private Collections in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Michigan
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Stephens College, Columbia, MO; MFA, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Website: http://www.gretchentreitz.com/
"Kentucky's State Champion Swamp Chestnut Oak" by Gretchen Treitz, 14x14in, watercolor, silverleaf (2016)
"Good Fruit II" by Gretchen Treitz, 25x25in, watercolor, silverleaf (2016), $2000 | BUY NOW
"Rose on Gerardia" by Gretchen Treitz, 10x12in, watercolor, silverleaf (2015)
"Study for In the Shadows" by Gretchen Treitz, 8x10in, watercolor, silverleaf (2015)
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.
