After earning his Batchelor’s degree from Rutgers University where he studied sculpture, Thomas Witte travelled and ended up spending significant time in Argentina. The artist was quickly drawn to the vibrant stencil graffiti scene then prevalent in Buenos Aires, which gave way for him to explore, experiment and solidify the technique. That translation of stenciling out hand-cut paper has led to Witte’s signature process whereby he meticulously draws his images on paper before cutting out areas using an X-Acto blade. He then lays the sheet on a dark ground to highlight the negative spaces. To render color, Witte adds an additional layer of hand-cut tissue paper which he has dyed with bespoke colors the artist makes in the studio. The imagery in Witte’s works is sourced from vintage 35 mm slides acquired from flea markets, online marketplaces, and the like. Scenes of city streetscapes, family vacations by the sea or pool, in addition to gatherings around meals have become the artist’s visual lexicon. Witte revives these anonymous, vintage scenes, reclaiming them and re-contextualizing the narratives which, while are snapshots of another era, portray recognizable scenes and familiar objects that are windows to a collective past.