John Wentz is a contemporary artist whose work is an exploration of process and technique. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to its core fundamentals: composition, color, and mark-making. Paint application and brush strokes are broad and simplified as a mean to connect and convey these ideas to the viewer with an abstract sensibility.
John Wentz is a contemporary artist whose work is an exploration of process and technique. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to its core fundamentals: composition, color, and mark-making. Paint application and brush strokes are broad and simplified as a mean to connect and convey these ideas to the viewer with an abstract sensibility.
About his work John Wentz tells the following:
“When time strips away certainty, when memories blur and identities shift, what is left at the core?
By embracing both presence and absence, clarity and obscurity, these paintings explore the ephemeral nature of selfhood. The figures stand at the threshold of recognition, caught between being and becoming. The work resists resolution, just as memory resists permanence. Instead, it offers a meditation on the beauty of imperfection, the necessity of change, and the quiet, lingering traces we leave behind”.
John was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interest in art began at the age of 6 when he first discovered Batman and Spiderman comic books. After years of copying comics panel by panel, he worked in the commercial arts as a muralist, billboard creator, and freelance illustrator. After learning to paint by doing airbrushed billboards, he decided to pursue Fine Art and work in oils. Since then, he has had 5 solo exhibitions in San Francisco and numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. His works have appeared in many publications and have won multiple awards.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Liminal Spaces, Stolen Space Gallery, London
2020
VR-NISSAGE, Urban Art Fair w/ myFINBEC, Paris, France
2019
The Death of Distance, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
2017
Navigation Unknown, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
2015
Imprints, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
2014
Passages, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013
Spectra, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012
Synthesis, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009
Adaptive Radiation, D-Structure, San Francisco, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
TRIAD, KIRK Gallery, Aalborg, Danmark
2024
Sunrise, Galerie GT, Bayonne, France
2023
Figuratively Speaking, Harman Projects, New York
In Dreams, Galerie GT, Bayonne, France
2022
Harman Projects, New York
San Francisco Art Fair
2021
Multiples, Hashimoto Contemporary, New York
Fragments, Stolen Space Gallery, London
Selections, art Karlsruhe, Germany
2020
4, Fraunberg Ateliers, Munich, Germany
Lately, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
Polyphonissima, Galerie Joël Knafo, Paris, France
2019
Re-Beginning, Thinkspace Projects, Culver City, CA
Project 1606, Kunsthuizen Gallery, Leiden, Netherlands
Dancing with Myself (Two Person Show), Pretty Portal Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany
Disrupted Realism, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2018
Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
Moniker Art Fair, London
Bodies5, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO
We The People, Mesa Arts Center, Phoenix, AZ
2017
Moleskine Project VI, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
Neon, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO
Portrait, Vertical Gallery, Chicago, Ill
Showed Up, Alto Gallery, Denver, CO
2016
Drawn to Greatness Made in California, Arcadia Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
Moleskine Project V, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
Wes Anderson Tribute, Spoke Art, New York, NY
Mini Show – Edge of Realism, Abend Gallery, Denver, Co
2015
Works on Paper Five & Under, Arcadia Contemporary, New York, NY
As One, Mike Wright Gallery, Denver, CO
Moleskine Project IV, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
Freaks & Americana, Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City, CA
Tired Hands, Good Mother Gallery, Oakland, CA
