Gallery 2424 is proud to present new works on canvas and Yupo by artist, curator, and editor Jon Witzky. On view from Friday, September 5 through Saturday, September 27, 2025, Witzky’s solo exhibition Disappearer continues his exploration of abstraction, figuration, and color following Sing the Body Electric, his 2024 exhibition with Ivy Anderson at Thompson Savannah. This new series marks a distinct evolution in his practice, embracing a bolder, more vibrant palette, solid and weighty forms, and raw mark-making.
Music remains a significant catalyst in Witzky’s creative process, with the exhibition’s title referencing Sonic Youth’s Disappearer from their 1990 album Goo. Beyond the musical nod, the title evokes the act of vanishing—the slow fade of memory, the way time erodes and reconstructs the past, and the shifting nature of personal and collective histories. In these paintings, moments and emotions emerge, dissolve, and reassemble—drawn, scratched out, redrawn, and reimagined, reflecting the shifting and imperfect nature of memory.
Witzky’s process is one of excavation. Layers of oil paint, oil sticks, pencil, and crayon are built up, only to be scraped away, revealing traces of past gestures. Erasure is as integral as application—each mark is subject to revision, discovery, and reconfiguration. In this process, the good, the bad, and the ugly coexist. Forms emerge and recede, contradictions surface, and the work settles into an uneasy equilibrium, where clarity and ambiguity are in constant flux.
Disappearer is not just about what is seen, but what lingers beneath—what is buried, uncovered, and re-examined. It is a meditation on the impermanence of memory, the instability of meaning, and the beauty found in both creation and destruction.
Opening Reception: Friday, September 5, 5-9pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, September 14, 3pm
Open Hours: Saturdays and Sundays 1-4pm or by appointment
Image: Jon Witzky, Disappearer, 2025; oil, acrylic, oil stick, and charcoal on canvas; 40 x 60 in.; courtesy of the artist.