Painter, conceptual artist and writer/guitarist Joseph Winterhalter's multifaceted studio and performance works dissect layers of material data and information, manifesting interrogations of complex, intricate histories.
Utilizing highly specialized and unorthodox techniques, Winterhalter’s painted works are devoted to the loaded weight and interplay of a painting's inherent presence as object, and the degree to which any materially articulated set of information - however abstract - may be utilized to address/influence everyday life.
Sifting through allusions to historic episodes and cultural tropes - including the legacy of the 'language' of abstraction in high Modernist painting, Derridian post-structuralist philosophy, and 20th Century radical, counter-cultural theory in practice - Winterhalter's work situates the viewer within a panoply of visual, material, and cognitive data. The resultant conceptual synthesis of these disparate subjects works to expose the abstract linkages - and subsequent degradation - of past, present, and future historical narratives, suggesting new information that is still evolving and in the process of revealing itself.
Winterhalter’s work ultimately provides coordinates to identify and apprehend the corollaries and disruptions inherent to the narrative fictions -- and non-fictions -- of our shared, collective experiences, teasing out the neglected and overlooked threads embedded deeply within.
Joseph Winterhalter (b. 1965, Cincinnati, OH) received his BFA in Painting from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, in 1991, following previous studies in graphic design and Fine Arts/Drawing at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.
Winterhalter attended the MFA Painting and Drawing program at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, in 1993.
Active in the underground/alternative art and music scene throughout the mid ‘80’s to present, including co-founding the interdisciplinary art space VOLK/C.S.P.I. (2000,) aspects of performance, writing and music have deeply informed his studio work. Starting a new, studio-adjacent work in 2015, Winterhalter first utilized guitar to conceive, write, perform and, subsequently, form a band - IdleAires. Their debut album IdleAires was released in late 2023.
Winterhalter was a recipient of an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Assistance Grant (2007) to offset medical costs related to a severe wrist fracture suffered in studio as he prepared for his solo exhibition ‘Leaving the 21st Century’ at the Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati.
Winterhalter’s paintings, drawings, prints and performances have been featured in solo and group exhibitions at Cincinnati venues including the Weston Art Gallery at the Aronoff Center (2001, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2015); 5/3rd Bank Theater at the Aronoff Center for the Arts (2002, 2016); Clay Street Press (2012, 2013, 2019); the Contemporary Art Center (2001, 2005, 2006, 2015); the University of Cincinnati (2008, 2010, 2014, 2017); the Cincinnati Art Museum (2010); and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (2023).
Nationally, he has exhibited at Ohio University, Athens Ohio; Firecat Projects, Chicago, IL; the Editions/Artist’s Books Fair, New York, NY, and the Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, among others.
Winterhalter's paintings, drawings and prints are included in the permanent collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum, and private collections internationally.
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