Wayne White Exhibition at the Joshua Liner Gallery

Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present its second major solo exhibition of work from Los Angeles based artist Wayne White: I’M HAVING A DIALOGUE WITH THE UNIVERSE AND YOU’RE JUST SITTING THERE. This exhibition will be White’s most ambitious project to date with the Gallery, featuring all aspects of the artist’s multidisciplinary practice: including kinetic sculptures, murals, work on paper, a wallpaper installation, and White’s signature word paintings on vintage offset lithographs. From puppeteer, to painter, illustrator, sculptor, wordsmith—and even typographic artist—the enormous breadth of White’s creative output is a fruitful product of a career spanning over 35 years.

For this body of work, White deconstructs themes surrounding vanity, hubris, and the inflated egos of artists, as he explains, “I’m drawn to the humor of vanity. The title of the show is an artist’s private, nasty thoughts about how he or she is superior to the public and is so worthy of praise and attention. It’s my way of popping bubbles and kicking pedestals.” Humor in particular is among the strongest touchstones of White’s work, explored throughout the entirety of his practice, and most discernibly in his word painting series –painted, often profane epithets, on vintage offset lithographs of kitschy landscapes. Cleverly wry phrases such as “THOSE GUYS ARE PUSSIES,” and “HAD IT GOIN ON BUT LOST IT THEN GOT IT BACK THEN FUCKED UP AND LOST IT,” interrupt the scenery, oftentimes integrated within the formal compositions of the offset prints.