By Chuck Martin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Artist John Wolfer, in front of some of his meaty work. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

Who would have thought cutting pork chops and grinding beef could someday lead to a solo art show?

Certainly not John Wolfer, who hated working in his father's west-side butcher shop. But those miserable hours cutting meat helped him realize his talent for painting chops and piles of ground round on canvas.

Wolfer is about to show a series of his meat paintings, which he describes as "somewhere between classical realism and pop art," at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington.

Lean & Tasty! Fresh Paintings by John Wolfer opens Friday. The exhibit, the first at the Carnegie to focus purely on food objects, runs through April 4.

"I've never seen an approach quite like his," says Bill Seitz, Carnegie gallery director. "We awarded him a solo show based on his artistic merit."

IF YOU GO

What: Lean & Tasty! Fresh Paintings by John Wolfer. Where: Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington. When: Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and noon-3 p.m. Saturday. Exhibit runs through April 4. Information: (859) 491-2030.

Visitors will see acrylic paint portraits of thick, well-marbled steaks; pink, ready-to-slice ham; maddening tangles of glistening bockwurst; and heaping pans of rosy ground beef. All of it raw, with bones and creamy white fat in the right places. The paintings range from $200 for a small stately portrait of two pork chops to $6,000 for a stunning scene of sausage links.

It will be Wolfer's first public show since he was an undergraduate at Xavier University 10 years ago, and he's not the least bit embarrassed that his work looks like it should be refrigerated, on the grill or in the pan.

"I don't think you should take yourself so seriously about these things,'' says Wolfer, 30, a quiet assistant professor of art at Raymond Walters College, who earned an undergraduate arts degree from Xavier and a master of fine arts from Clemson University. "You have to have a sense of humor."

Among his influences, Wolfer counts Rembrandt, Chaim Soutine and California pop artist Wayne Thiebaud, who gained recognition for painting pies, cakes and other food in the 1960s.

"Not everyone took him seriously at first, either," he says.

Wolfer discovered his knack for depicting meat less than two years ago when he was painting his father, Don, while he was working at Humbert's Meats in Delhi Township. While waiting to paint his father, Wolfer took photos of the meat and began painting it in his noisy Northside studio. A monstrous slab of porterhouse steak was his first still life.

"That was more interesting than what I started to do,'' he says.

Since then, Wolfer has painted more than a dozen pieces of meat-related art. Simple steaks and chops may take him a few days, but he spent much of the summer on two paintings of ground beef that look so real some may want to reach for a spatula.

"See the lighter shades there," he says, pointing to the noodle-like ground beef on canvas. "I know that's what it looks like after it goes through the grinder the second time."

Wolfer began working at his father's shop when he was 18, and put in more than a decade behind the counter, full and part time. Mostly, he disliked the job because the hours were "lousy.'' He also detested cleaning something at the store called the "chicken drain."

Don Wolfer says his son was always much better waiting on customers at the shop than cutting meat.

"I'm really proud of him,'' he says. "The detail and marbling in the steaks and chops are very good."

The younger Wolfer claims his subject matter doesn't make him extra carnivorous while painting. In fact, he doesn't eat much meat, although he confesses to enjoying a good hamburger now and then.

Fortunately, perhaps, none of his vegetarian friends has seen his meat masterpieces.

"They might wonder why I would paint such a thing,'' Wolfer says. "But then again, they might buy it."

Although he joked about possible vegetarian reaction when he scheduled the show, Seitz says he isn't expecting anti-meat protests.

Wolfer hopes his Carnegie show does attract patrons hungry for something different. At the very least, the artist wants to provoke reaction.

"I would hate to bore anyone," he says.