Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present Invisible Ruler, an exhibition of new work from Wayne White. The artist brings his unrivaled individuality and distinct aesthetic to New York with works ranging from 15-foot kinetic sculptures, White’s signature word paintings, and works on paper created during his residency at the Rauschenberg Foundation. The artist will be in attendance during the opening reception on Thursday, September 11, 2014.
For Invisible Ruler, White regards this exhibition with an all-encompassing eye: "Everything you try as an artist sticks with you and is in your work, and I’ve tried a lot—cartooning, illustration, set design, puppeteering, animation, sign painting, etc. It all still reverberates in the work I’ve done as a fine artist. [Invisible Ruler] is my 14-year investigation into the confluence of words and images, my ongoing love of drawing on paper, and the relics of my trips across the country creating fun-house puppet and sculptural installations."
Larger-than-life, hand-cut sculptures constructed of cardboard will dominate the exhibition space, towering over the viewer. Puppeteering in one form or another has been a prominent area of the artist's practice. This aspect of White’s work, both satirizing and deconstructing puppet shows, has resulted in a non-discriminant attitude toward figurative sculpture and puppetry—save the performative aspect. Constructing three-dimensional figures, both static and kinetic, embody the artist’s style and carry over in his works on paper, depicting his drawn characters with the same cubist features as his sculptures.
Another element to the artist’s diverse practice is his “Word Paintings.” White repurposes vintage offset lithographs and individualizes them with phrases such as The Smartest Artist, Asshole, and Invisible Ruler. These paintings give literal perspective to the letters that colorfully adorn these otherwise drab landscapes and serve as a window into the creative, and often sardonic, mind of the artist.
Wayne White has had an extensive career as an artist and art director. Many of his enthusiastic admirers know his work from “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” of which he has won three Emmy Awards for production design. White is also noted for his music videos for Peter Gabriel and The Smashing Pumpkins. More recently, White’s journey from young art student to his current studio practice was documented in the film Beauty is Embarrassing.
In conjunction with the exhibition Invisible Ruler, Joshua Liner Gallery will host a special screening of Beauty is Embarrassing including a Q&A following the film with the director Neil Berkeley and artist Wayne White on Wednesday, September 10, 2014.