| Tagged in: Untagged | Sep 14, 2009 |
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| Posted by: Nathan Spoor |
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Eric White's most recent series is a very entertaining and stimulating exercise in visual interplay. His new works, focusing on pre-1983 album art covers, open this weekend as a solo exhibition at the prestigious Sloan Fine Art. I recently had the great honor of splitting hairs with the visual magician, getting his take on the thought and fascination with this particular offering. Take a few moments to view his new works, or any of his recent works on his site, and take in what he's doing. The short and exclusive interview is a fair primer to his new work, but in no way scratches the surface of what e is up to. Click here to read the interview, and read below for selections from Sloan Fine Art's release on the event.
From Sloan Fine Art's site:
Music has always been an integral part of Eric White’s life, and is instrumental to his studio practice. He credits the Beatles’ White Album with getting him through his parents’ divorce and there’s a soundtrack for every work he’s ever created. And of course, White is aware that music influences many of our lives in similar ways. What significance did the White Album have in others’ lives? Did anyone else see Frank Zappa’s film 200 Motels way too young? Who else saw Carole King as a surrogate mother and wanted to live in that room on the cover of Tapestry? After a strange dream set in a record store brought this obsession with music together with his love for nostalgia, appreciation of absurdist humor, and longtime fascination with alternate realities, Eric White was inspired to create the paintings for LP.
For this new body of work, White takes the imagery and associations of music and album covers and filters them through his own vision and experience, and with great reverence for classic album cover design, reinterprets each original record. Employing a variety of techniques from trompe-l’œil to impasto, the LP sized paintings become fetishized objects, incorporating messages that range from cultural commentary to personal demons to silly jokes. Most every piece is instantly recognizable, but on further inspection the artist’s warped perspective emerges. For Get The Knack the band’s faces are garbled by information overload as the text reads “Too Much Content.” In Fleetwood Mac’s Rumoursa disparate collection of ominous imagery reminds us that in our hearts we are all “Terrified of Most.” And White works one of his basic philosophies for a happy life into Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats, with “Always Have Two Cats.”
As with Eric White’s previous work, this exhibition connects with the viewer via humor and nostalgia while encouraging us to question the reality we are being fed. The difference here is that for LP, White celebrates his inspiration and influences - the dream world, the lost art of the album cover, the irreverent parody of wacky packages, and his love of early pop art – much more directly, creating a specific and cohesive experience within the exhibition.
Eric White earned his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been exhibited at the MACRO Museum in Rome, the American Visionary Museum in Baltimore, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, and Track 16 in Los Angeles, as well as in shows at several New York galleries including Freight + Volume, Cheim & Read, PPOW, Clementine and Derek Eller. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
All images and text used by artist's and gallery's permission.
Exhibition information:
Eric White
LP
Opening reception with e: Wednesday, Sept. 16, 6-8pm
September 12 - October 10, 2009
128 Rivington St.
New York, NY 10002
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