Born in Ohio in 1962, George Widener has been hailed by New York Times critic Roberta Smith as a most significant recent discovery.

A self-taught artist and a calendar savant, Widener creates mixed-media works on paper that give aesthetic, visible form to complex calculations based on dates and historical events – the sinking of the Titanic is one of his favorite. The artist often uses found paper, or a support composed of layers of tea-stained paper napkins, to apply ink and paint upon. His drawings feature simple palettes, sophisticated patterning, and bold compositions of dates and imagery, which transcend centuries of time and the history of art - Widener sometimes likens himself to a “time traveler”.

George Widener is profiled in “Ingenious Minds: George Widener”, episode six of a six-part series of films focusing on savants and geniuses, which aired on the Science Discovery Channel in March, 2011. The artist is also a subject of the documentary film My Brilliant Brain: Accidental Genius, 2007. Widener’s life is the focus of a feature length film in production by Scott Ogden (director of MAKE), which is expected to premiere in the fall of 2011.

George Widener was most recently part of the exhibition “World Transformers: The Art of the Outsiders,” at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany, (September 24, 2010-January 9, 2011), and “Exhibition 1” at the Museum of Everything, London, UK, October 14 – December 23, 2009). Fourteen of his works are currently in the exhibition “Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts” at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI, (June 26-December 30,2011). George Widener will have an exhibition at the Galerie Suzanne Zander, Cologne in 2011. Udo Kittelmann, Director of Berlin’s Nationalgalerie has organized an exhibition of George Widener’s work at the Hamburger Banhof Museum, Berlin, Germany in 2012.