About Don Widmer

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I'm Don Widmer and I combine hand papermaking, bookbinding, and printing to create works inspired by storytelling and real and imagined histories. My sculptural artist books include my own writing and incorporate unusual book structures featuring movement and light. I create images within sheets of handmade paper using plant pulp as a painting medium, a technique called Pulp Painting. As a papermaker, I am fascinated by the ability of pulp to represent both living creatures and inanimate objects, which is why I choose to paint birds as well as architectural imagery. I have been a musician and librarian but only recently started my career as an artist after receiving my MFA in book and paper arts from Columbia College Chicago. I have received several Best of Show awards and my work is represented in university, museum, library and private collections. 

Widmer has exhibited throughout the Midwest, including Tall Grass Gallery (Park Forest), Gallery Studio Oh! (Chicago), Art Prize Grand Rapids, the Compassion Factory (Brookfield), Glenview Public Library, Terrain Biennial (Columbia College Chicago), Arts on Elston, Side Street Studio Arts, and Illinois Wesleyan University. His recent awards include 2nd Place (Lakeview East Festival of the Arts), Best in Show (Art on the Fox Fine Art Festival), Best in Medium (Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair), First Place Fine Art (Spring Bloom Fine Arts Festival), Judge's Choice Award (Greenwich Village Art Fair), Second Place Mixed Media (Crosby Festival of the Arts), Best in Show (West End Art Festival La Grange). Widmer has conducted papermaking workshops and demonstrations at the Elmhurst Artists' Guild, Arlington Heights Art Guild, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, and Spudnik Press. His work is represented in several university and library collections nationwide. Raised in Cleveland, Widmer received his MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago in May 2012. Prior to his art career, he was Library Director at VanderCook College of Music from 1996-2009.  

Solo Shows: 

• "Buildings, Birds, and Books," The Gallery at A+C Architects (Skokie, Illinois), August 26-September 23, 2021
• "Pulp and Steel: an Exhibition of Architectural Pulp Paintings," The Gallery, Arzoumanian & Co. (Skokie, Illinois), November 5-30, 2016
• "Artist Books by Don Widmer," Ames Library, Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, Illinois), May 1-31, 2013

Group Shows (Selected List):

• "More Than," Tall Grass Art Gallery (Park Forest, Illinois), June-July 2021
• "Affinities: Artists in the Libraries," Caxton Club (Virtual Exhibit), November-December 2020
• "Precious," Bridgeport Art Center (Chicago, Illinois), November-December 2020 
• "Growl, Howl, Moo, Baa, Roar," Tall Grass Gallery (Park Forest, Illinois), November-December 2020  
• "Shelter in the Speculative: New Works by Spudnik Press Members," Spudnik Press (Chicago, Illinois), November 2020-January 2021 
• "Materiality: Hand Papermaking in the Age of Isolation," North American Hand Papermakers (Virtual Exhibit), October-December 2020
• "National Juried Exhibition," Morgan Conservatory (Cleveland, Ohio), October-November 2020
• "2020 Visions," Tall Grass Gallery (Park Forest, Illinois), August 2020
• "NEXT" Virtual Art Exhibit, Gallery Studio Oh! (Chicago, Illinois), May 2020
• "The Illustrated Accordion," Kalamazoo Book Arts Center (Kalamazoo, Michigan), May 2020
• "Who's Afraid of Red?" Gallery Studio Oh! (Chicago, Illinois), November-December 2019
• Arnold Grummer Paperfest III (Green Lake, Wisconsin), October 2019, Honorable Mention Award

• Best in Medium (Paper), Art in the Barn (September 2021)
• Louise Renner Prize for 2-D Art, Park Forest Art Fair (September 2021)
• Best in Show, West End Arts Festival (September 2021)
• Merit Award, Third Ward Art Festival (September 2021)
• Best in Fine Art, 2020 Virtual Sugar Creek Arts Festival (July 2020)
• Honorable Mention, Arnold Grummer Paperfest III (October 2019)
• Second Place, Lakeview East Festival of the Arts (September 2019)
• First Place, Art on the Fox Fine Art Festival (June 2019)
• Best in Medium, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair (June 2019)
• Best in Show, Art on the Fox Fine Art Festival (June 2018)
• President's Award, Art on the Fox Fine Art Festival (June 2018)
• Best in Medium, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair (June 2018)
• First Place Fine Art, Spring Bloom Fine Arts Festival (March 2018)
• Judge's Choice Award, Greenwich Village Art Fair (September 2017)
• Second Place Mixed Media, Crosby Festival of the Arts (June 2017)
• Best in Medium, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair (June 2017)
• Best in Show, West End Art Festival La Grange (September 2016)
• Best in Medium, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair (June 2016)
• Best in Show, For the Love of Art Elkhart (March 2016) 
• Outstanding Achievement in Category, Buffalo Grove Art Festival (July 2015)
• Redhead Design Studio Honorary Award, East Lansing Art Festival (May 2015)
• Designers Choice Award, American Society of Interior Designers Illinois, One of a Kind Show, Chicago (December 2013)

My work can be found in the following collections:

• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
• Smithsonian Institution
• Newberry Library
• DePaul University
• Cleveland Institute of Art
• Ohio University
• University of Washington
• Glessner House Museum
• Illinois Wesleyan University
• UCLA
• Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation
• Florida State University

• Interview with Artists Book House, April, 2021
• Artist Spotlight (Kaneland Arts Initiative), July 26, 2020 
• The I in Team Podcast (during Art on the Fox), June 22, 2019
• VoyageChicago Interview, Sep. 8, 2018