Ted Witek
"North South, East West"

Curated by Hilda Yasseri

Printing from original negatives by Antonio Jose Costa at Viragem in Lisbon

Exhibition: 23 November, 2018 – 10 March, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, 23 November, 9pm

Ted Witek (*1957) was born and raised in Connecticut. He left the United States for Germany in 2001, moving to Portugal in 2004. He immediately fell in love with the country and its people.

Having the artistic good fortune to travel many times to the North and South of Portugal as well as to Madeira and the Azores, Ted found the country among the most visually stimulating places that he has visited. Whether watching youngsters jumping from all heights in the hot sun into the Douro River, discovering an abandoned mannequin factory in Chiado, awaiting fishermen returning to shore in Sesimbra long before sunrise, or observing the biker celebrants of the Concentração de Motos in Faro, Ted was continuously inspired to capture a visual story.

Learning he would move to Canada in 2008, Ted immediately purchased a home in Azoia at Cabo Espichel where he now keeps a studio.

In 2012, Ted photographed all of Canada’s beautiful provinces for a new series entitled "Canadiana" with first edition prints auctioned for the Herbie Fund Charity at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto (SickKids). This series brought him between the world’s longest coastlines, from the east’s land’s end at Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia and as far west as Bennett Lake — only reachable by floatplane over the icefalls and glaciers of Yukon.

The images selected represent a sense of place from Ted’s visual perceptions as he travelled North and South, and East and West, and back again. (Hilda Yasseri, Curator)

Ted Witek was born and raised in Connecticut and has since lived in Germany, Portugal and Canada. While he never formally studied the fine arts, he earned undergraduate degrees at Quinnipiac College, Master Degrees at Yale University and Henley College (London) and a Doctorate at Columbia University in the City of New York.

Having the artistic good fortune to travel extensively, his photographs, like the images in North South, East West, illustrate several chapters of his life in a unique and coherent body of work. Using film exclusively in his work, he finds the conditions of little time and little light conducive to his style.

Witek has been photographing since childhood and takes comfort in the self-proclamation of Helmut Newton that "he got good at 50!"

Canadian Satellite Show:

Ted Witek
13 December, 2018 – 13 February, 2019
Artist & Curator Reception: Thursday, 13 December, 5-7pm

Galerie Armada Negreiros
Consulate General of Portugal in Toronto
438 University Avenue, Toronto On M5G 2K8

www.tedwitek.com