Artist Statement
My eye is drawn to the physical world, how light and shadow move across surfaces, and how nature cycles through growth, decay, and renewal. I observe the beauty of imperfections, the way objects shift in changing light, and the tension at the point where different surfaces meet. These observations have been integral to my work throughout my career.
My sculptures range in scale from small intimate pieces to larger works that are site specific. I work in steel, stone, wood, and paper, all of which allows me to explore my creative vision. Each piece begins with the seed of an idea, but through working with the materials, it evolves, often leading to unexpected solutions. This process is what has driven me and is central to my practice.
In my most recent commission, “Invasive Beauty, In a Meadow”, sited within a cultivated wildflower meadow on Long Island, I extend this exploration into a living environment. The work was conceived to shift with the seasons and the surrounding flora, alternately visible and obscured, present and absorbed. The orange powdered coated rods rise in organic groupings, as if emerging from the meadow itself, blurring the line between what is made and what is grown.
Critics Statements
"What IS A Landscape" Cutchogue Free Library, Curator Amei Wallach
"John Wittenberg took his hint from one of the furrowed fields that bracket winter on the North Fork. He was transfixed by how the light landed and where, how it defined the clods of earth that plows detached and weather disturbed. His view is up close and it is personal. He’ll single out one section of one furrow in all its complexity of changing shape and surface, joining shards of wood into life-sized and larger sculptures that hide the intricacy of their construction. The minimal simplicity of both his sculpture and his paper pulp creations is deceptive. They emulate powerful forces. They probe the processes by which nature acts and is acted upon. He makes handmade paper that converts two dimensions into three, often adding something from nature – stones, perhaps, mica – and then he watches what happens, and thinks about it, and lets nature take its course."
Amei Wallach
