Almost all works are set “in the crepuscular light of dawn and dusk.” Uttech writes, “When I am there at this time of day and with a clean and empty mind a door opens for me to enter a state of tranquil ecstasy.” This is an emotional state he seeks to entreat in the viewer as well. In this way the work of Tom Uttech vividly draws viewers into the untouched wilderness of the Northern United States, while conjuring from this environment an emotional exchange that is vital to the human experience and from which we are often removed. The resulting paintings, created in the studio based on imagination, memory and deep knowledge built on long periods of study in the environment surrounding Uttech’s home in Wisconsin, are less-so depictions of specific locations than an imagined summoning of the experience of extended communion with the natural world.

Tom Uttech was born in 1942 near Wausau, Wisconsin. He studied at Layton School of Art and University of Cincinnati before becoming a long-time professor at the University of Wisconsin. Since the inclusion of his paintings in the 1975 Whitney Biennial, Uttech’s work has been the subject of over 40 solo exhibitions. He maintains his studio in a barn on his property north of Milwaukee and is engaged in restoring natural prairie to the surrounding area. His paintings are represented in major museum collections, including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, among many others.