July 5 – September 30, 2025
Narrowsburg Union
Narrowsburg, New York
This summer, over a dozen illustrations by artist Jeffrey Wiener will be on exhibit at the Narrowsburg Union gallery space in Narrowsburg, New York. Many of these artworks have never been exhibited publicly. The exhibit runs from July 5th through September 30th. Opening is July 5th from 6pm – 7:30pm.
Produced between the years 1987 – 1995, these paintings and drawings came from a period in this young artist’s life when he was full of creative energy – as a new resident in New York City – and trying hard to make a name for himself in the field of traditional Illustration. In those PRE-DIGITAL times, artists would personally bring their large portfolios of original works and photo-copies into the offices of publishers and advertising agencies in order to gather commissions. The pay for illustration work was quite modest in those days, and production “turn-around” times were usually to deliver the work within a week to ten days.
Many of these works are the professionally produced original artworks commissioned by clients from the advertising and design firm Sloan/Millman Productions. Those works are obviously more commercial, and reflect the role of an Illustrator working at the direction of an Art Director or Creative Director. In some cases, Jeffrey Wiener played all of those roles at Sloan/Millman. In other cases, the Creative Director was someone else who played an important role and pushed this artist to produce works in NEW styles. Some of the personal pieces were meant for exhibition or as portfolio pieces meant to showcase a particular style as a selling tool.
With clientele such as The New York Times, Scholastic, Arts & Entertainment Network, The National Science Foundation, DeBeers Diamonds, The Miami Herald, and Time Magazine Group, many of these artworks were published in limited edition runs, distributed across industries and institutions as printed corporate media, as illustrations in print magazines to accompany editorial text, or in national advertising campaigns in newspapers and magazines.
Many of these works from the 1990’s were created with pencil, color pencils, and acrylic paints. In those days, with no Internet, there was plenty of time to focus on producing details works in traditional media. However, there is one new piece (“Portrait of Neil deGrasse Tyson”, iPad/Digital Print, 2025) that the artist chose to include in this collection as an example of where digital skills can boost an artist’s speed and ability to iterate. This work began as a black and white digital pencil portrait. But the final works were delivered in multiple formats, in color, and ready for print AND web publication.
“I’m still a working Illustrator… I get several commissions each year to create really interesting and entertaining imagery, and animations too! And whether I use traditional or digital skills to create those works, it’s still MY brain that is doing the hard work. That’s what my clients expect. This is something that cannot be replicated with AI, BTW. I am not too worried about the future for Artists. As long as we keep coming up with good ideas, people will pay us to make art.”
These illustrations are wonderfully colorful, detailed compositions. They are artworks of the highest quality, and their provenance highlights the exposure that these works received in the world of publishing before the internet era. Lot’s of people were invested in the final product meeting high expectations.
These days though, an illustration is a more complex production process. And the speed of turnaround has only gotten shorter. To help me keep up with the demand for my design and illustration products, I now use AI to help occasionally in the studio as an assistant. I recently turned to Open.AI and used the platform for creating some of the smaller pieces I needed to compose my illustration. Much like cutting out from magazines, I wanted lots of little airplanes! Jets of every size and shape right now. And I wanted it in black silhouette, like a woodcut. In short order, my graphic design assistant came back with a large supply of license-free graphics for me to assemble into the layout I delivered for approval before final production. A huge time savings for me.
That’s what makes this exhibition so remarkable. When I look at these works, I see so much time dedicated to creating these artworks. Each one has a story, each one involved multiple people making decisions. And each one is for sale. If you find yourself interested in one of these works, and you want to know more about the work, reach out to me. I’d be happy to chat with you about some of my favorite illustrations over my long career.
