Harry Spitz

Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1951
I've become a fairly serious kayaker in the past 20 years. The power of water and ice have become major inspiration for me.

The evolution of my recent relief works

In 2006 I started working on a series of painted plywood reliefs. To jazz things up a bit I started adding metal leaf. The metal leaf seemed a little too bright and shiny to me so I brushed on chemicals to tarnish the metal. The resulting effects were breathtaking but flaky and unstable. Attempts to preserve these effects with lacquer ruined some of the pieces. The other problem with the metal leaf was that the tarnishing chemicals often ate right through the metal leaf. It became apparent that the ephemeral metal leaves were just a little too delicate for my purpose so I realized that I was going to have to make the switch to sheet metal.

With the first few pieces I continued the idea of tarnishing the metal but then I decided to texture the metal in order to give the tarnish a better grip on the surface. I then realized that the texture was a fine effect on its own so I decided to put the toxic chemicals aside.
These pieces will tarnish slowly over time on their own and I embrace this idea of change.

When ...

Resume Harry Spitz

1969 -1973 attended the Philadelphia College of Art where I had the privilege of studying with Rafael Ferrer and Robert Keyser.

1973 - 1976 Moved to San Francisco where I showed in The Mostly Flowers Gallery DaDa Postcard Museum, The Lawson Gallery and The Nanny Goat Hill Gallery.

1976 moved to Manhattan

1978 won a National Endowment for the Arts.
Co-founder (with G. H. Hovagimyan) of the 75 Warren Street Project, New York

1979 Helped Organize and participated in "A Salute to Creative Youth," 75 Warren Street, New York
Organized and participated in the first DUMBO open Studio show.

1980 One of the early members of ABC NoRio. I organized and participated in the Positive Show
Played Sledge hammer on Glen Branca's Lesson #1.
Performed "Pipe Music" on the mega Album Just Another Asshole. Click on http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=1034712 to hear a clip.

Performed pipe music in the Kitchen and at Arlene Schloss' A's


1989- Purchased my first kayak.
1996- Built a Guillemot stripper Kayak.
1998- Took a paddling class from Derek Hutchinson (the great British paddler)
2002- Built a Aleut Baidarka (a traditional Aleut kayak) ht...