September 28, 2019 - January 12, 2020 – 3rd Floor Foyer

George Widener (b.1962, Cincinnati, Ohio) is a self-taught artist and calendar savant who employs his extraordinary mathematical & calculating capabilities along with memorized census population statistics to create artworks based around significant dates and historical events. His works often employ complex date juxtapositions and bold numerical patterns that support an overarching theme like the sinking of the Titanic, one of his more prominent motifs. Now a close friend of the artist, Keen has been fascinated by Widener’s use of hundreds of numbers, letters, dates, arrows and symbols that surround and support the fundamental themes of each artwork. Numbers, dates, days, months, shapes and color come together in perfectly structured, elaborate patterns often composed on found paper or pieced together paper napkins.
His work can be found in many private and public Outsider Art collections, including the Bruno Decharme ABDCD Collection in Paris, The American Folk Art Museum, The Art Collection of the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and The Collection de l’Art Brut. Widener lives in the mountain town of Waynesville, North Carolina and travels abroad frequently.*
*Bethany Mission Gallery Website
Open Wed-Sat 11AM-4PM, Sun 12-4PM. $10 Adult / $8 Child, Seniors 65 , Military. Members free.