Doreen Wittenbols (Breda) is a Dutch-Canadian, queer visual artist and migrator currently based in New York City. Her work encompasses single-session observational paintings and longer exploratory projects involving abstraction, installation, performance, serialized painting, and ephemeral art.
Upon graduating from the Ontario College of Art & Design (Toronto, 1997) she was awarded the academic Governor-General’s award – one of the highest honors bestowed to Canadian artists. Thereafter, Wittenbols completed her MFA from Concordia University (Montreal, 2002). Her paintings are featured in Carte Blanche, Vol.2: PAINTING (2008), a book of contemporary Canadian painters. In 2010, she was shortlisted for the Marmite Prize for Painting.
Since 2016, Wittenbols’ figurative painting practice has expanded to include the incorporation of “souvenir” objects from her own life as well as found vintage items. Through installation projects and conceptually-driven series, Wittenbols reworks these non-traditional art elements from female and LGBTQIA+ perspectives to alter or subvert their superficial significance to question the patriarchy and societal roles.
Her work has been exhibited throughout Canada, the UK, The Netherlands, France and Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she also resided (2018-2021). Recent paintings were published in the 150th print issue of New American Paintings. During her Van Gogh Huis artist residency in Zundert, The Netherlands (2022), Wittenbols explored the commodification of Van Gogh’s work through the concept of the souvenir. Her first solo exhibition in the U.S. took place at Form & Concept Center (Santa Fe, NM) in 2023, and, in 2024 her first mini-retrospective at Harbourfront centre in Toronto, Canada.