Nicole Wittenberg
Value#28
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
3/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
9/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
9/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
5/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
3/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
- Primary Market
- Availability
- Works available through multiple gallery partners; limited edition prints and multiples available through specialized publishers
- Market Momentum
- Strong upward trajectory in 2024-2025 with major museum exhibitions, Phaidon monograph, and Acquavella Gallery representation in New York
- Pricing Context
- Works primarily available through major galleries with 'Price on Request' indicating established but emerging market tier. Editions and works on paper range $4,000+. Major paintings likely $15,000-$75,000+ based on recent museum exhibitions and Acquavella representation.
- Auction History
- Price Points
- Market Segment
- Under $15,000 for editions and works on paper; larger paintings likely $15,000-$75,000 range based on gallery tier and exhibition context
- Prints Editions
- $4,000 USD for works on paper (Sunset, 2022 at Maune Contemporary)
- Secondary Market Note
- Most works listed as 'Price on Request' indicating gallery-controlled primary market
- Auction Price Disclosure
- Specific hammer prices not publicly disclosed for recent 2024-2025 sales
- Recent Sales
Title Date Venue Status Cotton Candy, 2020 June 26, 2025 Auction (venue unspecified) Auction Closed Sweet William, 2021 March 29, 2025 Auction (venue unspecified) Auction Closed Cliff Walk Study, 2021 February 28, 2025 Auction (venue unspecified) Auction Closed Stefania 3, 2021 December 12, 2024 Auction (venue unspecified) Auction Closed Stormy Weather, 2020 / The Sea Before the Storm, 2020 October-December 2024 Auction (venue unspecified) Auction Closed Water Birch, 2021 December 12, 2019 Christie's Sold Bridge of Sighs, 2014 Historical Capsule Gallery Auction — - Total Lots Tracked
- 9 auction results documented
- Market Characteristics
- Limited secondary market presence with most works sold through primary galleries. Auction activity exists but volumes are low (under 10 lots annually), suggesting strong primary market control and collector retention. Recent increase in auction activity (2024-2025) coincides with major institutional exhibitions.
Institutional Presence
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York, NYThe Albertina
Vienna, AustriaMuseum of Fine Arts Boston
Boston, MAHigh Museum of Art
Atlanta, GAAïshti Foundation
Beirut, LebanonColby College Museum of Art
Waterville, MEBowdoin College Museum of Art
Brunswick, MEPortland Museum of Art
Portland, MEFarnsworth Art Museum
Rockland, MEColumbus Museum of Art
Columbus, OHFemale Artists Collection, Mougins Museum
Mougins, France- Exhibitions
- Solo Museum Exhibitions
Title Dates Venue Location Curator A Sailboat in the Moonlight April 18 - July 20, 2025 Ogunquit Museum of American Art Ogunquit, ME Devon Zimmerman Cheek to Cheek May 24 - September 14, 2025 Center for Maine Contemporary Art Rockland, ME Suzette McAvoy Ain't Misbehavin' June 13 - July 19, 2025 Maison La Roche, Fondation Le Corbusier Paris, France — - Notable Group Exhibitions
Title Year Venue Location In Her Hands 2020 Skarstedt Gallery New York, NY Painter's Painters: Gifts from Alex Katz 2015 High Museum of Art Atlanta, GA The Female Gaze, Part Two: Women Look at Men 2016 Cheim & Read Gallery New York, NY Nowhere but Here: Art from the Alex Katz Foundation — Colby College Museum of Art Waterville, ME Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts — American Academy of Arts and Letters New York, NY - Recent Solo Gallery Exhibitions
Title Year Venue Location All the Way — Acquavella Galleries New York, NY Our Love is Here to Stay — Acquavella Galleries Palm Beach, FL We've Got Forever 2024 Massimo De Carlo Milan, Italy Moonshine Lullaby 2023 Massimo De Carlo London, UK Jumpin' at the Woodside 2024 Fernberger Gallery Los Angeles, CA Distant Waters / Sunday Kind of Love — Nina Johnson Gallery Miami, FL Tennis Elbow 2023 Journal Gallery New York, NY
- Museum Collections
- Recent Acquisitions
- Albertina acquisition documented 2017; multiple Maine museum acquisitions reflecting regional strength
- Institutional Momentum
- Exceptionally strong 2025 with three simultaneous solo museum exhibitions and first comprehensive monograph. Strong relationships with Alex Katz and David Salle have led to important group exhibitions and critical support.
- Awards and Recognition
- Year
- 2012
- Award
- John Koch Award for Best Young Figurative Painter
- Institution
- American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Significance
- Prestigious recognition for emerging figurative painters
Career & Biography
- Career
- Career Milestones
Year Event 2003 First solo exhibition at Masterworks Gallery, San Francisco 2012 Received John Koch Award for Best Young Figurative Painter from American Academy of Arts and Letters 2011-2014 Teacher at New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, and Bruce High Quality Foundation University 2017 Professor in Critical Theory Department at School of Visual Arts, New York 2025 Three simultaneous solo museum exhibitions (Ogunquit Museum, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maison La Roche Paris) and first comprehensive monograph published by Phaidon
- Identity
- Roles
- Painter, curator, professor, writer
- Current Location
- Chinatown, New York City, USA
- Artistic Evolution
- Wittenberg began with figurative work and explicit erotic paintings based on amateur pornography (2014), establishing her reputation in downtown New York art circles. She has evolved toward vibrant landscape and floral paintings inspired by Maine and other natural environments, while maintaining the same bold, uncompromising approach. Her practice involves creating plein air pastel studies that are later transformed into large-scale oil paintings in her studio.
- Artistic Context
- Venetian colorists (Veronese), Impressionists, Fauves, American landscape painters (Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, Alex Katz, Lois Dodd, Ann Craven), Jenny Saville, Egon Schiele, Michelangelo, Matisse, Goya, Degas, Velázquez
Artistic Profile
- Evolution
- Critical Evolution
- Initially recognized for provocative erotic work that challenged taboos; now expanding reputation through landscape painting that maintains same bold, uncompromising approach. Critics connect both bodies of work through themes of compression, scale, sensation, and 'unabashed beauty.'
- Influences
- Influences and Lineage
- Historical
- Venetian school (Veronese), Impressionists, Fauves (Matisse), Goya, Degas, Velázquez, Egon Schiele, Jenny Saville
- Abstract Expressionism
- Action painting, gesture as physical record (compared to Franz Kline)
- Contemporary Connections
- Alex Katz, Lois Dodd, Katherine Bradford, Ann Craven, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Chantal Joffe
- American Landscape Tradition
- Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, Marsden Hartley, Albert Pinkham Ryder
- Themes and Subjects
- Sensory experience and sensation; emotional intensity; trust in visual perception over convention; translation of lived experience; sexual energy and natural energy as parallel forces; temporal moments and memory; light and color as emotional vehicles
- Movements and Periods
- Signature Characteristics
- Vivid, almost neon colors (acidic yellows, neon pinks, vibrant oranges)Canvases that 'glow as though charged with the scene's light'Compression and manipulation of scaleSyncopated, jazz-like rhythms in compositionBalance between observation and emotional interpretationPaintings that feel like they're 'in motion'
- Art Historical Positioning
- Contemporary painter working within and extending multiple traditions: American landscape painting, Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism, figurative realism. Positioned as heir to both Maine landscape tradition and bold figurative painting. Challenging conventions around representation of sexuality and natural beauty.
- Techniques and Mediums
- Plein air pastel studies created on-siteStudio transformation of studies into large-scale oil paintingsUse of opaque grounds with transparent oils to achieve luminosityBold, gestural brushwork often using brooms for large canvasesHigh-chroma, non-naturalistic color choicesControlled drips and fluid passagesLayering and transformation through multiple iterations
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Key Supporters
Name Significance Contribution Quote Role David Salle Major contemporary painter and influential critical voice; curated Wittenberg into important exhibition; wrote essay for monograph — praised her commitment to reinventing realism with more brute force than her predecessors or contemporaries Painter, curator, critic Alex Katz Works gifted by Katz Foundation included Wittenberg in museum exhibitions; clear artistic lineage connection — — Painter Suzanne Hudson — Essay in monograph connecting Wittenberg's approach to Venetian colorists like Veronese — Art historian Suzette McAvoy — — unabashed beauty Curator Devon Zimmerman — Curated first solo museum exhibition; wrote essay for monograph — Curator - Critical Themes
- Reinvention of realism and figurative paintingBold approach to sexual imagery and male nudeVirtuosic use of color and gestureConnection to art historical traditions (Venetian, Impressionist, Fauvist, American landscape)Sensory and emotional intensityTranslation of lived experience into paintPainterly hedonism and uncompromising vision
- Academic Attention
- Essays by art historian Suzanne Hudson; inclusion in museum collection exhibitions curated by scholars; documented influence on emerging painters
- Publications and Media
- Major Publications
Date Context Publication — — — May 2025 — The Paris Review June 2025 Review of summer 2025 museum exhibitions Brooklyn Rail July 2025, November 2022 Multiple features on exhibitions Cultured Magazine June 2025 Feature on Maison La Roche exhibition Artnet News June 2025 Major review comparing Wittenberg and Ann Craven Maine exhibitions Boston Art Review July 2025 Review of Phaidon monograph Daily Art Magazine November 2025 — Interview Magazine October 2025 Feature on Acquavella exhibition W Magazine November 2025 — 1stDibs Introspective January 2024 — Autre Magazine December 2022 — Palm Beach Illustrated
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
- Art Fair Participation
- Documented participation through gallery booths at Art Basel Miami Beach and other major fairs through represented galleries
- Representation
- Market Positioning
- Positioned between emerging and mid-career with blue-chip gallery representation (Acquavella) alongside strong secondary tier galleries. Gallery roster indicates strategic positioning for market growth.
- Secondary Galleries
Location Gallery New York, NY Skarstedt Gallery New York, NY Peter Freeman Gallery
- Geographic Reach
- Strong presence in US (New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Palm Beach), Europe (London, Milan, Paris, Vienna), and international reach through major galleries
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