PRAISE FOR J.J. WEINBERG
“Irreverent. Intelligent. Mischievous. Nothing short of visual literature. J.J. Weinberg is Mark Twain with a paintbrush. ”
— JOHN RUSKIN
“His “Well Regulated Militia” series kicks the viewer in the teeth. Weinberg comes out swinging like Norman Rockwell with a sledgehammer.”
— CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
ARTIST BIO
A graduate of the prestigious American Academy of Art, J.J. Weinberg holds his degree in the discipline of illustration but claims that the tutelage of Dr. Trapp lead him to value the advancement of figure drawing as one of the most powerful skills an artist can develop.
In 2015,Weinberg's painting “Midas’ Love - The Gold Kisser” was awarded the Grand Prize in the first city-wide Pop-Up art festival in Valparaiso, Indiana. The painting is now a part of Valparaiso’s downtown art installation in the form of a utility box wrap at the corner of Napoleon and Lincolnway. Shortly thereafter, Libby Chiu (current chair for Indiana Arts Commission and former National Endowment for the Arts) nominated him for the Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellows award in 2016.
Weinberg was able to raise $100K over 3 angel investors including; Theresa Fette (Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs - FORTUNE), Sean Ono, and developer Revelry. He was then able to do a local launch of the prototype of his mobile platform called Artunity."Donate to an artist for a chance to win a work of art, Artunity is like Instagram meets GoFundMe with a Las Vegas Twist.", Weinberg says. Art unit recently won the People's Choice award for Startup of the Year in New Orleans and has been juried in as one of the top 100 Startups to gather again in Memphis in October 2019.
In late 2016, after painting the 30x40 Chicago Cubs “Field of Dreams” for his Dad, Weinberg posted a video of his reaction to the gift that went viral. It was featured in the press from Chicago Tribune and NBC to being highlighted on SportsCenter’s Top Plays. He leveraged the national press to sell prints and began on the path of using the energy of the image for charity. One such donation was to the Special Olympics and his jumping in on the Polar Plunge at 4 Winds Field where he was honored as one of the Top 100 donors in the state and the Top Individual Fundraiser.
Among smaller charity events around NW Indiana, Weinberg has been involved with many Cubs charities and donated paintings to events with Tom Ricketts (Cubs Owner), Grant Deporter (owner Harry Caray’s Restaurant), Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, Kyle Schwarber, Ron Santo Jr., Kerry Wood, and most recently Wilson Contreras.