Born in 1971 in Deep River, CT. Lives in New York, NY.
The simple yet profound ways in which humans assert their presence has been a central theme for White for some time. How do we decide which marks are accidental and which are virtuosic; what marks belong in art history and who gets credit for them; which marks belong to specific spheres such as advertising, graffiti, and kitsch; and which marks transcend classification? There is a sense of balancing high and low, humor and seriousness, perhaps even life and death, that pervades all of the works.Many of the signs and symbols that repeat in White’s work are ubiquitous and mutable in culture at large. Recognizable imagery—pixelated hearts, rainbows, and peace signs— have mass culture origins in everything from Lisa Frank stickers to weather apps, drawing out notions of lost innocence (a pixel heart, for example, represents a “life” in video games).
Wendy White lives and works in New York City. She holds a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Her exhibitions include EXPEDITION at The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (2021); American Idyll at SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2018); The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, curated by Franklin Sirmans and Jennifer Inacio, at Perez Art Museum, Miami (2018); Loves, Savannah College of Art & Design, Atlanta, GA (2018); The Art Show: Art of the New Millenium in Taguchi Art Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan (2016); Taguchi Hiroshi Art Collection: A Walk around the Contemporary Art World after Paradigm Shift, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan (2015); Futbol: The Beautiful Game, curated by Franklin Sirmans, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2014); and So Athletic, Kunstverein Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin (2012). She has had solo exhibitions at Kaikai Kiki, Tokyo, JP; Leo Koenig Inc., New York, NY; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Maruani Mercier, Brussels, BE; Van Horn, Düsseldorf, DE, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL; Galerie Jérôme Pauchant, Paris, FR; and Galeria Moriarty, Madrid, ES. White is the recipient of a Painting Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (2012) and a George Segal Painting Grant (2008). Her work was featured in Phaidon’s anthology Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting (2011). White’s first solo museum exhibition is forthcoming at Museum Goch, Germany in July 2021.
The social-media-inflected mood of the sculptures is both matched and expanded on in White’s paintings, whose faux-wood surfaces inevitably evoke boarded-up windows.
The artists’ latest exhibition, “Airlok or Gazing Into The Void” at D.C.’s Von Ammon Co., was inspired by Google Image Search.
“I really love Wendy White’s exploration of Americana,” he said at the Los Angeles gallery Shulamit Nazarian — where couches are upholstered with denim jeans — signaling to the newbie visitor that taste and enjoyment are valid criteria.
Wendy White makes ample reference to both — and particularly 1980s surf and skate culture — in her show “Santa Cruz.”
One of the prevailing (and surprisingly durable) trends out on the leading edge of contemporary photography is the ongoing exploration of photographic uncertainty, the place we end up when proof and evidence break down.
Denny Gallery presents “Frameshift,” curated by useful pictures, an artist-run investigation into the future of photographic practice. “Frameshift” focuses on the blending of classic photography and the digital world. The images are each manipulated via encoding, scanning, embedding or altering context.
By making each component distinct — visually, materially, and in its physical scale — White endows everything with a specific identity. By having the smallest component resting on the floor, with something larger stacked on top of it, she ensures that this element is regarded as necessary to the work rather than as a decorative addition.
