Biography
Craig Blietz (b. 1956) lives and works in northeast Wisconsin. He is recognized for his work representing American rural landscape and pastoral life.
Blietz is a graduate of the University of Denver (Bachelor of Science, 1981) and Harrington College of Design (Associates Degree, 1990). His academic training in art continued from 1992 to 1996 at the School of Representational Art in Chicago, Illinois. Blietz also studied privately with Chicago figurative artist Fred Berger, Chicago portrait artist Richard Halstead, and Chicago painter, printmaker, and illustrator John Rush. Travels in Europe and throughout the United States enhanced Blietz’s knowledge and skills in animal and landscape painting.
Blietz has had twenty-four solo exhibitions and has exhibited widely in museums in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were shown in 2002 at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin; 2013 at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin; and in 2020 at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wausau, Wisconsin. In 2018 Blietz’s body of work entitled Herd was featured in a solo exhibition in the main gallery of the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, Wisconsin. His works appear in printed form in three full exhibition catalogs and in a substantial 12” x 12” hardcover book entitled Craig Blietz: Eight Years of Pastoral Dreaming published in 2013.
Resume
b. 1956
EDUCATION:
School of Representational Art, Chicago IL 1992-96
Harrington College of Design, Chicago IL, AD 1988-90
University of Denver, Denver, CO, BS 1977-81
SOLO SELECT EXHIBITIONS:
2022 Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Haul Road” 2022
2020 Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art; Wausau, WI, “Building the Aggregate: 2007 to 2020”
2019 ArtStart Rhinelander; Rhinelander, WI, “Agraria”
2019 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters – Watrous Gallery; Madison, WI, “Agraria”
2019 Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Herd”
2018 Museum of Wisconsin Art; West Bend, WI, “Herd”
2017 Paine Art Center & Gardens; Oshkosh, WI, “Close to the Forest”
2016 Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Craig Blietz – Calendar”
2014 Penn State Altoona College; Altoona, PA, “Yard: The Art of Craig Blietz”
2014 Center for the Visual Arts; Wausau, WI, “Craig Blietz – Farm to Table”
2013 Miller Art Museum; Sturgeon Bay, WI, “Craig Blietz: A Twenty Year Survey”
2013 Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Craig Blietz – Creamery”
2013 Gallery 224; Port Washington, WI, “Yard: The Art of Craig Blietz”
2013 St. Norbert College-Bush Art Center; DePere, WI, “Yard: The Art of Craig Blietz”
2013 Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts; Brookfield, WI, “Yard: The Art of Craig Blietz”
2012 Plymouth Arts Center; Plymouth, WI, “Yard: The Art of Craig Blietz”
2011 Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Craig Blietz – Midwest”
2009 Brickton Art Center; Park Ridge, IL, “Craig Blietz – Monochromes”
2007 Muskegon Museum of Art; Muskegon, MI, “Contemporary Art Showcase – Craig Blietz”
2007 Fairfield Center for Contemporary Art; Sturgeon Bay, WI, “Craig Blietz – Spaces Between”
2002 St. Norbert College-Bush Art Center; DePere, WI, “Looking Back: Work from 1992-2002”
2000 University Club of Chicago; Chicago, IL, “Craig Blietz”
2000 Northern Indiana Arts Association; Crown Point, IN, “Craig Blietz – Small Container Paintings”
1999 Union League Club of Chicago; Chicago, IL, “Craig Blietz – Recent Work”
GROUP SELECT EXHIBITIONS:
2022 Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Summer in Wisconsin” 2022
2021. Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Summer in Wisconsin” 2021
2021 Maxwell Alexander Gallery; Los Angeles, CA, “Summer Small Works Exhibition”
2020 Maxwell Alexander Gallery; Los Angeles, CA, “Black Friday”
2020 Maxwell Alexander Gallery; Los Angeles, CA, “Drawing Show - Group Exhibit”
2019 Maxwell Alexander Gallery; Los Angeles, CA, “Black Friday”
2019 Tory Folliard Gallery; Milwaukee, WI, “Nature Morte”
2018 Plymouth Arts Center; Plymouth, WI, “In Fine Form: The Human Presence”
2016 Miller Art Museum; Sturgeon Bay, WI, “7th Annual Door Prize for Portraiture”
2016 Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum; Wausau, WI, “2016 Birds in Art”
2015 ArtStart Rhinelander; Rhinelander, WI, “Animal Dreams – Of Earth, Water, Air and Imagination”
2015 Ann Street Gallery; Newburgh, NY, “It’s OK to be a Realist”
2014 Charles Allis Art Museum; Milwaukee, WI, “Forward: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now 2014”
2012 Charles Allis Art Museum; Milwaukee, WI, “Forward: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now 2012”
2012 Fort Wayne Museum of Art; Fort Wayne, IN, “2012 Contemporary Realism Biennial”
2011 South Shore Arts; Munster, IN, “Reassembled”
2011 The Art Center; Highland Park, IL, “Compilation”
2011 Racine Art Museum/Wustum Museum of Fine Arts; Racine, WI, “Watercolor Wisconsin”
2010 Fort Wayne Museum of Art; Fort Wayne, IN, “2010 Contemporary Realism Biennial”
2010 Peninsula School of Art-Guenzel Gallery; Fish Creek, WI, “The Value of Black and White”
2010 Charles Allis Art Museum; Milwaukee, WI, “Forward: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now 2010”
2006 Miller Art Museum; Sturgeon Bay, WI, “Drawing: A Timeless Medium-A Wisconsin Invitational”
2005 Miller Art Museum; Sturgeon Bay, WI, “Genre Painting: Scenes from Everyday Life”
2002 Wright Museum; Beloit, WI, “Farm Stories: Studies in a Disappearing Landscape”
2002 West Bend Art Museum; West Bend, WI, “Farm Stories: Studies in a Disappearing Landscape”
2001 Rahr-West Museum; Manitowoc, WI, “Farm Stories: Studies in a Disappearing Landscape”
2001 Miller Art Museum; Sturgeon Bay, WI, “Interior Landscapes: The Elegant Spirit of Still Life Painting”
NOTABLE COLLECTIONS:
Museum of Wisconsin Art
Miller Art Museum
J.B. & M. K. Pritzker, The Governor’s Mansion, Springfield, IL
Dohmen Company Foundation
West Bend Mutual Insurance Company
Coldwell Banker
Glenview State Bank
Northwestern University
Peninsula School of Art
NiSource of Indiana
Sprint Corporation