Jeffrey Wiener was born in Miami, Florida in 1961. He began drawing intensely by age 5, and by his early teens he was creating large scale pencil drawings and taking local commissions for illustrations and portraits. With art books on artists for inspiration, Jeffrey was inspired by the socially-active realist painters from mid-19th century: Diego Rivera, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Paul Cadmus, Picasso, and the quixotic MC Escher. Each of them had a strong influence on Wiener’s sensibilities and understanding of Art’s purpose in history and the role of the artist in culture. During high school, Jeffrey apprenticed in the busy interior design studio of a family friend, where he was trained in the various techniques of the decorative arts. Faux finishes, natural scenes with flora and fauna, all were employed in producing large hand-painted murals. Wiener helped produce numerous decorative artworks for wealthy south Florida home-owners, including the celebrities Barry Gibb and Saudi Prince Sheik Al-Fasi., both of whom owned homes In South Miami Beach.
Jeffrey Wiener moved to New York City in 1986 to pursue his professional and artistic goals. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, he exhibited his drawings and paintings in many of the smaller galleries throughout Soho and the East Village. He continued to explore themes of faith and spirituality in the age of AIDS, which he displayed regularly at the CoOp gallery Ward Nasse. While many of his works were dark, brooding visualizations of apocalyptic themes, he also produced several bodies of figurative works.
Jeffrey Wiener entered the world of information design in 1993, teaching himself several coding languages and building the first websites for several large publishing clients such as Scholastic and PCMagazine. A growing roster of advertising agency clients allowed him to establish his first multimedia design firm Jeffrey Wiener Studio in midtown Manhattan later that year.
In 1993, Wiener also launched his first online gallery (www.wienerart.com) where he showcased his artworks and interactive projects to the public. During the following decade, Wiener worked as a Creative Director for several highly successful eCommerce, entertainment, and community-based website companies, including the popular multi-faith website Beliefnet.com.
After his own personal experience in New York on 9/11, Jeffrey Wiener refocused his thinking on art and business goals, and launched his online marketing company Dangerous Media Productions (www.dangerousmedia.com), an interactive design consultancy that specializes in strategic digital marketing. He is also the founder and Creative Director of Young Mind Interactive, a publisher of educational eBooks, games and digital learning tools.
In 2007, Jeffrey Wiener began publishing of the Figurative Arts video-magazine TheGreatNude.tv, a website devoted to the artists who are dedicated to The Nude in their artworks. TheGreatNude.tv has thousands of followers across social media and has over 90 videos on TheGreatNude YouTube Channel now with over 32,000 subscribers and over 24 million video views.
After suffering a heart attack and cardiac arrest in the summer of 2016, Jeffrey Wiener left his residence in New York City and now spends his time in Monticello, in the Catskills Mountains in upstate New York, and in sunny, quiet Boynton Beach, Florida during the winter.
Wiener continues to organize artists around good causes (See below), judging and curating exhibitions, creating and TEACHING traditional and digital art, and pushing the boundaries of Digital Drawing and Painting. You can find his current artworks and photography on Instagram and Facebook.
