jerome witkin: Selected works
January 18, 2025 - February 22, 2025
about the show
Ro2 Art is honored to present a selection of seven paintings by the renowned American figurative painter Jerome Witkin. Widely celebrated for his ability to merge technical mastery with profound storytelling, Witkin’s work captures the raw complexity of the human experience with an emotional depth rarely seen in contemporary painting.
This selection showcases Witkin’s signature approach to narrative realism—where meticulously observed details, rich psychological tension, and cinematic composition collide. Among the works on view, intimate moments of contemplation and confrontation unfold: figures are caught between worlds of memory and reality, wrestling with themes of mortality, resilience, and social consciousness. His bold, unflinching portraits—whether of individuals burdened by history, submerged in existential liminality, or caught in quiet domestic tension—demand a visceral engagement from the viewer. These paintings offer a rare opportunity to experience Witkin’s genius firsthand, drawing us into spaces where personal and collective histories intertwine. As one of the most compelling figurative painters of our time, Witkin continues to remind us of painting’s power to evoke, unsettle, and bear witness. The exhibition is on view through February 22, 2025. |
About the Artist
Jerome Witkin is recognized as one of the most formidable contemporary figurative painters. Critically, Jerome Witkin generates notable praise, as exampled by the L.A. Times citing his work to be “a break-through in post-Cold-War art.” The San Francisco Chronicle’s Kenneth Baker cites that “Witkin’s only peer is Lucian Freud…. Witkin is one of the finest realist painters working today…he stages pictorial dramas that grapple with contemporary historical crises and moral pressures, while offering a lavish physical display of his medium…. ” Witkin’s works can be found in the permanent collection of prominent museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Jerome Witkin is represented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles.
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