Wayne White Exhibit at Marty Walker Gallery Opens February 20
Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Wayne White photograph by Stephen Berkman
I Fell 37 Miles to Earth 100 Years Ago
Marty Walker Gallery
Opening Reception Saturday, February 20, 2010, 6 to 8 p.m.
Marty Walker Gallery proudly presents I Fell 37 Miles to Earth 100 Years Ago, a solo exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by LA artist Wayne White.
Estate-sale landscape lithographs make queer, yet somehow fitting homes for the punchy word combos that Wayne White injects into generic “sofa-art” scenery. White deftly paints seemingly monumental assemblages of words embedded throughout idyllic settings while needling the viewer with bold humor in sarcastic phrases (ie. Sexy Paintings by Sexy Painters for Sexy People), twisted spatial arrangements, and loud extroverted color -not unlike the imposing “See Rock City” billboard ads from White’s native Tennessee that inspired these text-ured environments.
White’s wide-ranging technical palette-equal parts designer, sculptor, painter, and draftsman are zealously displayed as he coaxes text to take on new forms, letters twisting, folding, bending and stacking, always more thoughtfully rendered than the painting reproductions they inhabit; and, even further emphasizing their objectness as sculptural manifestations, they smack viewers with candy colored shapes and sly remarks (All That Fake Laughin’ for Nothin’), placing them squarely within the folksy cartoon world of the artist’s mind.
Co-creator of Emmy-Award winning Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, White has also art-directed television shows, music videos (Peter Gabriel’s Big Time, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight Tonight), and advertisements. Additionally, White’s paintings and sculptures have been exhibited extensively; recent exhibitions include “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep,” Rice Gallery, Houston; Art Miami Basel outdoor installation wrapping the exterior of the Wolfsonian (Miami) in text “Beauty is Embarrassing.“ The artist€s strange and mesmerizing career is illustrated in the new monograph edited and designed by Todd Oldham, ‘Wayne White: Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve’. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles.
Look How Hot This Is by Wayne White, 2009
Sad Funny Sad by Wayne White, 2009
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