Ben Woolfitt

1153 Queen Street West

Toronto, Ontario M6J 1J4

(416) 533 2727

Gallery One announces taking on Ben Woolfitt's work Ken Carpenter writes a major article for Art Focus A book is in the planning stage on Ben WoolfittÕs work.

This year saw my drawings expand to include larger sizes of drawings. On a trip through India a cleaning person in my hotel threw out a template for my mountain series, and I re-invented that image for my work. An exhibition is planned with Carlos Alessi Unpublished Gallery in New York. The gallery closed before the show.

In this year I would introduce my image which I called my 'crying tree'. It seems as if there have been many tears in my life, and the crying tree image seemed very apt.

I began a series of drawings called 'the big brushstroke in the sky'. For me these were reminiscent of a comment that B P Nichol had made to me that I was constantly trying to re create my environment by doing large paintings. While these works are not large they reminded me of this comment.

This was my first show with Stanley Borenstein at the Prince Arthur Gallery in Toronto. This show was of my free formed pieces of acrylic on wire mesh. I wanted to work with acrylic paint but without the traditional support that artists used, canvas. I felt that removing the traditional support would allow me to explore the properties that acrylic paint had to offer painting.

I started my mountain series of drawings from a template of paper. These images were composed by the use of frotage for a background. The image is then silver leafed and embossed. The mountain came to symbolize hope for me - and in some of the drawings I would talk about this image as my 'old faithful' - an image that was always there for me and always accessable to me.

I do my first tryptich. This tryptich allows me to start painting in a very loose and wet style I was always used to as I did not have to worry about the constraints of my environment. Certain artwork can only be made in a factory environment. You need the comfort of knowing there will be no damage.
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I purchased 1153 Queen Street West, the building which will house Woolofitt's Art Supplies and give me enough room to build 11 loft spaces. One of these lofts is to become my home, and allow me to see my dream Ð to completely surround myself with my works and still have enough space to look at my collection of pieces by other people.

This was the beginning of my drawings of the early 2000Õs. These works were done as an expression of my grief for the loss of my sister, Shirley. They were begun as a series of journal works and initially were never meant to be shown. The writing on the pieces was as a journal would have been for me, and as such they are very personal and revealing as to where my life was at and what my inner most feelings were at that time.

This year I did two large drawings which were called Ôdrawings from my gardern' series. These were done using frotage 1991 I built a loft and moved to a building I owned at 361 Oakwood Avenue. It gave me the opportunity to paint and work on larger work which I did not have while I lived at 10 Wells Hill Avenue as I worked in a small basement studio there.

A friend of mine, Will Kennedy, borrowed Pat Fairhead's studio for a month and I decided to do very loose work with a large brush done in a very fast style. These pieces were 50: x 38" paper, and I would often work on more that one each day. It was an exhuberant period of my work, filled with life and vitality.

I did this series of etchings after my mother passed away. These etchings were very special to me as this process in many ways provided the base for the drawings I have done in the period of 1996-2003. Number VIII was a very special piece, as it was the 'last letter to my then deceased mother.'

This year I will begin my 'erotic series', a group of works on paper which I did by tracing, drawing, and imprinting nude models, working with imprints (in some cases of my arms and forearms).

This is the last year of my school. I had invited Tim Whitten to do a workshop of 10 weeks with a number of artists I knew - this workshop was a very special time for all involved. When Tim began to teach his comment was - so what do you want from me? It was like a masters class - almost everyone in the class had been making artwork for 5 years or so and most had exhibited their work. It was during this workshop that I would make artwork using metal leaf, which in part came from the fact that I was actively involved in frame making, something my friend Brian Dedora had taught me over the years. I had started using gold spray paint in the early 1970's, but had not actually gone to the use of metal leaf.

This year I took a group of my students to New York and utilizing the facilities belonging to the Ontario College of Art worked with them for 10 days. I then invited Henry Geldzhaler, curator from the Metropolitan Museum in New York came and did a critique of the students work. I showed these pulled paintings to Geldzhaler at that time.

This year I work on my diamond paintings which were done in two ways - either the use of gels on raw canvas, or a staining of the canvas with up to 30 layers of diluted paint.

These paintings were done with scraper on canvas, the shapes being thought out at the time of painting. However, this is the first indication of the mountain-like imagery - such as 'Reams of Peaks' - that I would work with extensively in the early 2000Õs mountain pieces.

I started a series of paintings done with commercial paint rollers this year. The curator for my Hart House show came to see these and demanded that I either destroy all of the work or he would no longer work with me. This event ultimately led to me starting my own business to make money so I could return to painting on my terms. Painting is from the heart - punitive acts like this have nothing to do with the act of creation, and are only the expression of one person seeking dominance over another human being.

My second one man show took place at Hart House, University of Toronto, Toronto. For me, this was a good year and a very solid year of painting. The paintings from this year were spray painted using acrylic on canvas or enamel on rice paper.

My first one man show at Founders College, York University in Toronto.

After purchasing my first Ellsworth Kelly, I begin drawing and subsequently visit David Mirvish, telling him that I have decided to become a painter. I rented a small studio - flat on Major Street and paint my first one man show at York University.

First trip to New York city to visit the galleries and museums for the first time. From 1966 onwards I make 3 or 4 trips per year to New York City.

1973 Toronto Center of the Arts

1974 Gallery O (Olga Korper), Toronto

1975 The New York Gallery, Rochester

1976 Phoenix Theatre, Toronto

1976 Gallery O (Olga Korper), Toronto

1977 Gallery O (Olga Korper), Toronto

1978 Vivaxis, Toronto 1979 Vivaxis, Toronto

1980 Wingfield, Toronto

1981 Vivaxis, Toronto

1982 Private Exhibition, Toronto

1987 Bowen Gallery, Toronto

1995 Baird Gallery, St. Johns

2001 Prince Arthur Gallery, Toronto

2002 Prince Arthur Gallery, Toronto (November 9-16)

2002 Carlo Alessi Unpublished, New York (October)

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1969 Nightingale Gallery, Toronto (Spring)

1970 Nightingale Gallery, Toronto (Fall)

'70's Gallery O (Olga Korper), Toronto

1977 Ontario Now 2, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton

1978 Genesis, Toronto

1982 Leanne Hull Fine Art, Toronto

1983 Shelley Lambe Fine Art, Toronto

1984 Carol Sterne Art Consultant, Toronto

1987 Contemporary Fine Art Services, Toronto

1999 Gallery 7, Toronto

2001 Eastern Normal University, Shanghai

2001 ZYPR Gallery, Toronto

2001 Prince Arthur Gallery, Montreal

2002 Prince Arthur Gallery, Toronto

Musee du Bas St Laurent, Riviere du Loup

Hart House, University of Toronto

Robert McLaughlin Gallery

Bank of Tokyo

Hilton Hotels

Laxton, Glass & Swartz Lefranc & Bourgeois, France

Canadian Pacific Hotels, Hotel Newfoundland

Cantel Incorporated

McKenzie Financial Corporation

Citibank, Canada

Central Art Academy, Beijing

Numerous Private Collections

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Kingston

Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton

Musee des Beaux Arts, Montreal

1972-1980 The Woolfitt School of Contemporary Painting Founder and Instructor - 50 students

1990 York University - Quality in Papers

1999 Lakehead University - Acrylic Paints

2000 Eastern Normal University, Shanghai -Acrylic Paints

2001 Shanghai Hua Shan Art Craft College

2001 Shenzhen Art Academy - Acrylic Paints

2001 Shenzhen University - Acrylic Paints

2001 Guangzhou Art Academy - Acrylic Paints

2001 Guangzhou University - Acrylic Paints

2000 Eastern Normal University, Shanghai - Acrylic Paints

2001 Shenyang University, Shenyang - Acrylic Paints

2001 Central Art Academy, Beijing - Acrylic Paints

2002 Central Art Academy, Beijing - Acrylic Paints - Four day workshop

2002 Tianjing Art Academy, China - Acrylic Paints

Ben Woolfitt has been painting since 1969, and has been involved in the fine art material business since 1978. Woolfitt Art Enterprises was started at this time as a retail store in downtown Toronto. The business has been expanded to include an extensive distribution business, which now distributes product worldwide.

His work has been exhibited widely in Canada, and is in major collections. The major medium of BenÕs work is acrylic on canvas, paper and plexiglass.

Woolfitt Art Enterprises Inc. supplies stores through Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. WoolfittÕs was known as a paper distributor, but now is the international distributor for Tri-Art acrylic products.

Ben Woolfitt is in the process of establishing a major art foundation.