GerogeWIdener_ISSUU

THE HEART OF WAR

George Widener’s Ukraine

THE HEART OF WAR

George Widener’s Ukriane

George Widener's work occupies a unique place in the art world. A well-known numbers savant, he is celebrated for his ability to craft multi-layered visual narratives that merge mathematical precision with personal storytelling, drawing upon his own vivid memories and fascination with the intricacies of timekeeping systems. His meticulous drawings reflect a deeper, almost obsessive engagement with numbers and their symbolic power, creating artworks that resonate with the complexities of human cognition and experience.

Hirschl & Adler Modern is pleased to present recent works by George Widener (b. 1962) that reflect on his months volunteering in war-ravaged Ukraine. T he Heart of War: George Widener’s Ukraine, on view from March 12 to April 17, 2026, features seven multi-media works on paper completed by the artist after his return to the United States in the fall of 2025. These are partially abstracted reflections of the region’s chaos and emotional intensity, interpreted through a combination of symbols, words, and numbers that are central to the artist’s practice. It was Widener’s sixth volunteer effort in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022. During that time, Widener provided logistical and humanitarian assistance in some of the most sensitive and dangerous places in the war. He bore witness 6soldiers on various fronts in the Donetsk and Donbas regions: the outskirts of the battles of Avdiivka, Zaporizhzhia, and Pokrovsk.

George Widener may be the only professional American artist, who is also a veteran, with significant experience in the many theaters of the Ukraine-Russia

conflict. His personal mission is to support local communities and document the ongoing challenges faced by the Ukrainian people. This commitment to both global awareness and the fight for democracy permeates Widener's art, imbuing it with a sense of empathy and urgency. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force during NATO’s Cold War era, Widener grapples with long-diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. For years, he has struggled to adjust to civilian life and, over decades, has chosen a comparatively unrooted existence. Widener’s resulting peregrinations are a recurring theme in his work. Many of Widener’s drawings form a travel log of his experiences around the world, especially in Europe. The drawings are map-like in appearance and dense with information.

The pictures in The Heart of War take visual cues from heavily relied-upon maps of the Ukraine-Russia conflict compiled by the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C., an open-source intelligence and analytics organization whose up-to-date interactive maps are used widely by combatants and non-combatants alike. They are considered highly accurate reporting of the ever-fluctuating frontline and of troop movements in certain ongoing battles. These detailed geographic maps are overlayed with colors and lines denoting captured territory and enemy incursions. A series of symbols and crosshatches indicate the current status of a given area. Circles pinpoint the heaviest fighting in a 24-hour period.

Widener’s recent work references various maps including the battle of Pokrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and others from November 2025. Pokrovsk, a strategically sensitive transit hub for the Donetsk region, has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Despite Russia’s multiple claims of capture over the past year, Ukraine still appeared to hold onto a portion of the beleaguered city. Victory for either side would represent a powerful shift of momentum in the war. During his various trips to Ukraine, Widener spent time near these areas helping in a logistical support role. While there and elsewhere in the country, he met numerous Ukrainian soldiers, many of whom have since been killed in action.

These drawings are Widener’s expression of the devastating impact of the war on himself and others more broadly. They focus on the cold, calculating tone of military analysis juxtaposed against the ruinous destruction and suffering inevitable to all wars. On a map, terrible fighting is reduced to patterns of simple lines, colors, and symbols on a page. But Widener uses dense black marker on the periphery of his “maps” to evoke the shapes of bombed, hollowed-out concrete buildings he witnessed in the aftermath of fighting throughout Eastern Ukraine. Now the pain and fear are no longer distant or theoretical. They are deeply felt and experienced by the artist.

The numbers stamped across the composition are found throughout Widener’s oeuvre. On one level, they are an intuitive attempt by a numbers savant to find order in the chaos seen firsthand. He uses numbers to reveal the existence of recurring patterns in the universe, predictable truths that underlie even the most inexplicable of human follies. Looking closely, the sequences of numbers go forward into the future suggesting the ripple effect trauma can have on families and communities. On another level, counting numbers is an effective coping mechanism for an autistic artist with PTSD under tremendous stress. It is an intensely personal response to an extraordinary moment in human history.

THOMAS B. PARKER Director, Hirschl & Adler Modern

Untitled 2025

Marker, ink and paint on paper 84 x 60 in.

Untitled 2025

Untitled 2025

Marker, ink and paint on paper 84 x 60 in.

james everett stanley

1975 education

2005 Master of Fine Arts, Painting, Columbia University, New York, NY

2002 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

2000 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Art, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA

selected solo exhibitions

2023 From the narrow place , Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY

James Everett Stanley: Selected Works , Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

2021 Double Vision , Provincetown Arts Society, Mary Heaton Vorse House, Provincetown, MA

2017 Lands Seen and Unseen , Barton College, Wilson, NC

2015 New Work , Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2011 Dark Matter, Kinkead Contemporary, Culver City, CA

2009 Let it Burn , Kinkead Contemporary, Culver City, CA

2007 The Garden , Kinkead Contemporary, Culver City, CA

The Hills and the Plains , Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago, IL

2006 There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days , Freight + Volume Gallery, New York, NY

Salt of the Earth , Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago, IL

selected group exhibitions

2022 Lichtung , Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, MA

A Likeness , Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY

2019 ZEIT-GEIST-ZEIT, Gaa Gallery, Wellfleet, MA

Seeds of Inspiration , Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI

2018 Connections: Visual Fellows of the Cape , Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA Against Forgetting I , Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, MA

The Visual Thread , Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA

2017 Summer Show , Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Adjunct Faculty Exhibition , List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI

2016 The Faculty Curates , Mugar Art Gallery, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH

Visual Arts Faculty of the Summer Program , Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2014 In Progress Show , ArtStrand Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2013 Kin , Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2012 Our Roots: FAWC Takes Wings , Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Drawing Invitational , Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA

2011 From the Barn to the Apple , Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA

2010 Boy, Oh Boy! , Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL

FAWC: Former Fellows 2002–2003 , Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

HeadJAM: a portrait invitational , Artstrand Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Fuckheads: Portraiture for Silicon Enlightenment , Kinkead Contemporary, Culver City, CA

2009 Giving Face: Portraits for a New Generation , Nicholas Robinson Gallery, New York, NY

Fuckheads: Portraiture for Silicon Enlightenment , SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM

2008 Always Kiss Me Goodnight , Kinkead Contemporary, Culver City, CA

2007 Highlights of Distinctive Messengers LA and NY, House of Campari, Miami, FL

Keeping it Real , Richmond Center, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI

Painted Faces , Kinkead Contemporary, Culver City, CA

Some Kind of Portrait , Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA

Distinctive Messengers , House of Campari, New York, NY

First Kiss , Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2006 Manhattan Project , Fredric Snitzer Galley, Miami, FL

Project Room , Freight + Volume Gallery, New York, NY

2005 Can I Get a Witness?, Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago, IL

Columbia University MFA Thesis Show , Studebaker Building, New York, NY

2004 Hungry Eyes , Wallach Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY

awards / grants / residencies

2018 Arts Foundation of Cape Cod Fellowship

2005 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program

2004 Gelman Painting Fellowship Columbia University

Rudin Award, World Studio Foundation Scholarship Program

2002 Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Visual Arts Fellowship

2017 No Man’s Land: A Collection of Works by Contemporary Female Artists , Andrews Gallery, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA

Seeing with Our Own Eyes , Forum Gallery, New York, NY

Objectifying Myself , William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Masculine—Feminine , Beall Center for Art and Technology, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA

Et in Arcadia Ego , William Roland Gallery of Fine Art, Cal Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA

Separation Anxiety, Project Artspace, New York, NY

2016 @Pussy Power, David & Schweitzer Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

The 105th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art: Threatening Beauty, Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA

Representing Rainbows , Gerald Peters Presents, New York, NY

Mir ist das Leben Lieber, Weserburg Museum Fur Moderne Kunst, Sammlung Reydan Weiss, Bremen, Germany

Arcadia , New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA

More Than Your Selfie , New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA

2015 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT , The Art Museum, SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, NY [traveled to Stauth Memorial Museum, Montexuma, KS; Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art, Moraga, CA]

Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA

Wrath: Nature Strikes Back , Wave Hill, Bronx, NY

Far, Far and Away, CMA, New York, NY

Eden Eden , Torri Gallery, Paris, France

50/50: Fifty Artists from 5 Decades UCSC Alumni Exhibition, Sesnon Gallery, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

EXOTICA and 4 Other Cases of the Self, ME Collectors Room Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2014 Play Hard , Terrault Contemporary, Baltimore, MD

Living and Sustaining a Creative Life , Book Event and Exhibition, Aberson Exhibits, Tulsa, OK

Forecast ¸ Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

EXOTICA and 4 Other Cases of the Self , ME Museum, Olbricht Collection, Berlin, Germany

Women , ME Museum, Olbricht Collection, Berlin, Germany (Detail) , H-Space Gallery, Bangkok [traveled to Transition Gallery, London, UK]

Hyper-Resemblences , Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY

Through the Looking Glass , Gateway Project, Newark, NJ

What Does Love Look Like , Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID

Women Choose Women Again , Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ

2013 Things Wondrous and Humble, American Still Life , Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC

The Least Orthodox Goddess , Gallery 151, New York, NY

Environmental Impact , Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, SC [traveled to Peninsula Arts Center, Newport News, VA; Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; The R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, LA; Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH]

Four Women , All Visual Arts, London, UK

Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY

2013 Annual , National Academy Museum, New York, NY

2012

Women’s Work , National Academy Museum, New York, NY

Twisted Sisters , Kristen Dodge Gallery, New York, NY

The Perfect Storm , Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY

The Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women , traveling exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Philadelphia, PA

The Calendar’s Tales: Fantasy, Figuration and Representation , 808 Gallery, School of Visual Arts, Boston University, Boston, MA

2011 Land of Magic: Artists Explore Make-Believe , Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA

Memories of the Future , Maison Rouge, Olbricht Collection, Paris, France

Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again , Sloan Fine Art, New York, NY

Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, Mana Art Center, Jersey City, NJ

Acrimboldo-Artistsa Milanese tra Leonardo e Caravaggio , Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy

Open , Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Uncovered , Eden Rock Gallery, St. Barthes

2010 The Reflected Gaze–Self Portraiture Today, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA

Surface Tension , South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN

In Canon , Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE

Nice to Meet You , Sloan Fine Art, New York, NY

Private (Dis)play, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

Eye World , Triple Candie, New York, NY

The Other as Animal , Danese Gallery, New York, NY

2009

Speak for the Trees , Friesen Art Gallery, Sun Valley, ID

Bods: Rethinking the Figure , Robert Kidd Gallery, Birmingham, MI

The Platonic Ideal , Forum Gallery, New York, NY

Epic Painting , Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

Flower Power, Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

Beyond Appearances , Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY

Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture , Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL

Forces of Nature , Danese Gallery, New York, NY

Untitled 2025

Marker, ink and paint on paper 84 x 60 in.

design

shall not die but live I

H&A