History

Born in 1939,  Jerry Wingren was raised in a small port town on an island in southeastern Alaska, whose population was split about evenly between Norwegian immigrants and Tlingit natives. As a child, he was surrounded by nature, by resource industries (fishing, canning, logging), and also by the native totem poles, whose influence on his work did not show up until much later.

Wingren entered the University of Washington in 1959 to study Scandinavian and German language and literature, and began spending a lot of time at the university art school. He was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study German drama at the University of Bremen. Before he left he began carving an abstract eye out of a piece of timber, and admitted to a friend that he didn't want to write a dissertation, but instead wanted "to carve and carve and carve."

In Bremen he befriended two master sculptors, Otto Almstadt and Moritz Bohrmann, and began an apprenticeship in stone sculpture with them. For two years he worked in sculptural "actions" with the group Kontakt Kunst, who "performed" live sculpting all over Germany.

In Heidelberg, Wingren studied Origami with Hiromi Hoshiko. On his return to the United States, he began creating large three-dimensional works in steel--influenced by Origami's method of turning a two-dimensional plane into three dimensions by folding. He worked in aluminum and faceted marble, investigating mathematical equations and the I Ching. He was inspired by the mathematics in nature, creating apertures in blocks of granite and marble that allow light to pass through on the solstice or equinox, days of special importance in northern regions.

In the mid eighties, Wingren represented the United States at the International Stone Sculptors Symposium in Bremen, and made his first visit to the renowned black granite quarries in Sweden, near the native village of his ancestors. He has since spent part of every year making sculptures there.

In the late eighties he began making totems, accentuating the beauty of cedar in abstract forms. A sabbatical trip to Japan in 1996 introduced him to Zen gardens, leading him to "downsize," creating small totems and his "Little Houses" made of steatite.

In recent years, Wingren has continued to incorporate elements of his northwest and Scandinavian heritage with Japanese aesthetics. He has exhibited widely in the U.S. and Europe in private galleries and art museums, including the Atlanta Sculptural Arts Museum, the Denver Art Museum, and the Kleine Orangerie in Berlin. His works are found in private and public collections in the U.S., Germany, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain, and Japan.

Exhibitions

2021

• Incredible Lightness: Retrospective (solo exhibition) Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art — Boulder, Colorado 
  
  

2019 

• Art New York Pier 94 (group exhibition) via Atelier Newport — New York City
  

2018

• A.R.T. 2 (group exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  

2016

• Arvada Center for the Arts, Art of the State, (group exhibition) — Arvada, Colorado 
  

2014

• Gallery Sugata, (solo exhibition) — Tokyo & Kyoto, Japan
  

2012

• Lisa Harris Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  

2010

• The Korea Society Gallery, (solo exhibition) — New York City
  
• Lisa Harris Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  
• Chambers @ 916 Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Portland, Oregon
  

2009

• Lisa Harris Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  
• Lisa Harris Gallery, (group exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  

2008

• Blink Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• Walker Fine Art, (solo exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

2007

• Lisa Harris Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  

2006

• Blink Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• Magidson Fine Art, (solo exhibition) — Aspen, Colorado
  
• Lisa Harris Gallery, (group exhibition) — Seattle, Washington Magidsen Gallery, (group exhibition) — Aspen, Colorado
  

2005

• Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, (group exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• Lisa Harris Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  
• The Dairy Center for the Arts, (solo exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• Magidson Fine Art, (solo exhibition) — Aspen, Colorado

2004

• Lisa Harris Gallery, (group exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  
• Walker Fine Art, (solo exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

2003

• MacLaren Markowitz Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• Walker Fine Art, (solo exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

2002

• Lisa Harris Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  
• National Nordic Museum, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  

2001

• Lumina Gallery, (group exhibition) — Taos, New Mexico
  
• Havu Gallery, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• Shidoni Invitational, (group exhibition) — Santa Fe, New Mexico
  

2001-1999

• William Havu Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

2000

• Lumina Gallery, (group exhibition) — Taos, New Mexico
  

1999

• Arvada Center, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• William Havu Gallery, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

1997

• Sandy Carson Gallery, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

1995

• Sandy Carson Gallery, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

1993

• Alpha Gallery, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• Gallery 154, (group exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  

1992

• Klub von Berlin, (solo exhibition) — Berlin, Germany
  

1991

• Saargalerie, (solo exhibition) — Saarbrucken, Germany
  
• Boulder Art Center, (group exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  

1990

• C’est La Lu, (group exhibition) — Berlin, Germany
  

1989

• Galerie Bischofsmuehle, (group exhibition) — Hildesheim, Germany
  

1988

• Galerie Karo, Das Quadrat, (group exhibition) — Berlin, Germany
  
• Kulturform Villa Oppenheim, (solo exhibition) — Berlin, Germany
• Tanus Textildruck, (group exhibition) — Frankfurt, Germany

1987

• Galerie K-19, (solo exhibition) — Berlin, Germany
  
• Kleine Orangerie Schloss Charlottenburg, (group exhibition) — Berlin, Germany
  
• FORM at Colorado College, (group exhibition) — Colorado Springs, Colorado
  
• Schwayder Gallery Denver University, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

1986

• Atwell Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Colorado Springs, Colorado
  
• Cooper Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado Denver
  
• Art Expo, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• Gallery of Contemporary Art / Colorado University, (group exhibition) — Colorado Springs, Colorado
  

1985

• Greenwood Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Seattle, Washington
  
• Shattuck Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Juneau, Alaska Scanlon Art Center, (solo exhibition) — Ketchikan, Alaska
  
• Gallery of Contemporary Art / Colorado University, (group exhibition) — Colorado Springs, Colorado
  
• Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities, “Colorado 3D”, (group exhibition) — Arvada, Colorado
  
• Take Stock in Art, Civic Center Building, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

1984

• Sandy Carson Gallery, (solo exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• Pirate Gallery, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• FORM at Fiddler’s Green, (group exhibition) — Englewood, Colorado
  
• Sixth Annual Sculpture in the PARK, (group exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• FORM at Artyard, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  

1983

• Boulder Center for the Visual Arts “New Tools: Machine and Image”, (group exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• FORM at the Denver Botanic Gardens, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• Take Stock in Art, Civic Center Building, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• Shattuck Gallery, (group exhibition) — Juneau, Alaska
  
• Scanlon Art Center, (group exhibition) — Ketchikan, Alaska
  

1982

• Boulder Sculpture Symposium, (group exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  
• Denver Art Museum, “State of the Arts - Sculpture”, (group exhibition) — Denver, Colorado
  
• Atlanta Sculptural Art Museum,“Great Garden Sculpture Show” (group exhibition) — Atlanta, Georgia
  

1981

• Criss Cross at Yellowstone Art Center, (group exhibition) — Billings, Montana
  

1980 - 1986

• Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, (group exhibition) — Boulder, Colorado
  

1980

• Festival of the Arts, (group exhibition) — Santa Fe, New Mexico

Select Corporate, Public & Museum Collections

Select Private Collections

• Birgit and Horst Ziel — Berlin, Germany and Mallorca, Spain
  
• Drs. Anatol and Danuta Gotfryd — Berlin, Germany
  
• Kari Bye — Valdres, Norway
  
• Klaus Boehm — Wildeshausen, Germany
  
• Lars Ake Hultman — Växjö, Sweden
  
• Marlene and James Scanlon — Ketchikan, Alaska
  
• Mark and Polly Addison — Denver, Colorado
  
• Minae Kudo — Oita, Japan
  
• Polly Josephowitz — London/Geneva
  
• Shunsuke and Kaori Kamiashi — Tokyo, Japan
  
• Stephanie and Allan Rudi — Boulder, Colorado
  
• Takashi Nakazato — Karatsu, Japan
  
• Tim and Lena Meade — Hong Kong, China

Awards & Education

1974-1976

• Fulbright grant to Germany: work in studios of Otto Almstadt and Moritz Bohrmann, master stone sculptors, and Klaus Coehm, metal sculptor